I have now before my eyes one who was pretty, brave, and a good
horse-woman; but how men did hate her! When you were in a line
with her there was no shaking her off. Indeed, you were like
enough to be shaken off yourself, and to be rid of her after that
fashion. But while you were with her you never escaped her at a
single fence, and always felt that you were held to be
trespassing against her in some manner. I shall never forget her
voice, " Pray, take care of that gate." And yet it was a pretty
voice, and elsewhere she was not given to domineering more than is
common to pretty women in general; but she had been taught badly
from the beginning, and she was a pest. It was the same at every
gap. " Might I ask you not to come too near me ? " And yet it was
impossible to escape her. Men could not ride wide of her, for she
would not ride wide of them. She had always some male escort with
her, who did not ride as she rode, and consequently, as she chose
to have the advantage of an escort, of various escorts, she was
always in the company of some who did not feel as much joy in the
presence of a pretty young woman as men should do under all
circumstances. "Might I ask you not to come too near me?" If she
could only have heard the remarks to which this constant little
request of hers gave rise. She is now the mother of children, and
her hunting days are gone, and probably she never makes that
little request. Doubtless that look, made up partly of offence
and partly of female dignity, no longer clouds her brow. But I
fancy that they who knew her of old in the hunting field never
approach her now without fancying that they hear those
reproachful words, and see that powerful look of injured feminine
weakness.

But there is the hunting lady who rides hard and never asks for