Part 6 (1/2)
He rode by her side, too, as near as the plunges of the chestnut would allow, till we reached the gorse that we were to draw; once there, the stronger pa.s.sion prevailed. Aphrodite hid her face, and the great G.o.ddess Artemis claimed her own. As the first hound whimpered, he drew off toward a corner, where a big fence would give a chance of shaking off the crowd, and I do not think he turned his head till the fox went away.
The last thing I remember there was the anxious look in two beautiful hazel eyes as they gazed after the Axeine, charging his second fence with the rush of an express train.
The _fetiche_ did not fail us; we had a wonderful run, of which only five men saw the end. I confess, the second brook stopped me and many others. Forrester got over with a fall; but they were preparing to break up the fox, when he came up first of the second flight.
Guy came home in great spirits; he had been admirably carried. He and the first whip, a ten-stone man, were head and head at the last fence, while the hounds were rolling over their fox, a hundred yards farther, in the open.
After dinner he amused himself with teasing his cousin. At last he asked her if she would lend him Bella Donna to hack to cover, as his own favorite was rather lame.
Miss Raymond's indignation was superb; for, be it known, she was prouder of the said animal than of any thing else in the world.
She (the mare, not the lady) was a bright bay, with black points, quite thorough-bred, and as handsome as a picture. Livingstone had bought her out of a training-stable, and had given her to his cousin, after having broken her into a perfect light-weight hunter.
One of the few extravagances in which Mr. Raymond indulged his daughter was allowing her to take Bella Donna wherever she went.
”Don't excite yourself, you small Amazon!” replied Guy to her indignant refusal. ”How you do believe in that mare! I wonder you don't put her into some of the great Spring Handicaps! You would get her in light, and might win enough to keep you in gloves for half a century.”
”Well, I don't know,” Forester's slow, languid voice suggested; ”I think she's faster, for three miles, than any thing in your stable. I should like to run the best you have for 50, weight for inches.”
”I am not surprised at your supporting Bella's opinion,” said Guy, with a shade of sarcasm in his voice, ”but I did not expect you would back it. Come, I'll make this match, if you like; you shall ride catch-weight, which will be about 11 st. 7 lb., and I'll ride the Axeine at 14 st. 7 lb.: I must take a 7 lb. saddle to do that. They are both in hard condition, so it can come off in ten days; and I'll give the farmers a cup to run for at the same time. Is it a match?”
”Certainly, if Miss Raymond will trust me with Bella Donna.”
Isabel's eyes sparkled--so brilliantly! as she answered, ”I should like it, of all things.”
”Now, Puss,” Guy went on, ”you ought to have something on it. There is a certain set of turquoises and pearls that I meant to give you whenever you had been good for three weeks consecutively; it is no use waiting for such a miracle, so I'll bet you these against that sapphire and diamond ring you have taken to wearing lately.”
His cousin looked distressed and confused. ”Any thing else, Guy,” she said. ”I can not risk that; it was a present from--from Mrs. Molyneux.”
”I don't think,” Charley suggested, very quietly, ”Mrs.--Molyneux, was it not?--could object to your investing her present on such a certainty.
I really believe we shall bring it off; and if not--” He checked himself with a smile.
”Oh, if you think so,” answered Isabel, blus.h.i.+ng more than ever, ”I will venture my ring. But you _must_ win; I don't know what I should do if I lost it.” So it was settled.
”You seem confident,” I remarked to Livingstone, later in the evening. I remember the peculiar expression of his face, though I did not then understand it, as he answered gravely,
”Bella ought to be; for--she has laid long odds.”
There was great excitement in the neighborhood when the match, and the farmers' race to follow, became known. Half the county was a.s.sembled on the appointed morning, an off-day with the Pytchley. G.o.dfrey Parndon was judge, and had picked the ground--a figure of 8, with 17 fences, large but fair for the most part; the horses were to traverse it twice, missing the brook (16 feet of clear water) the second time.
I wish they were not getting so rare, those purely country meetings, where three wagons with an awning make the grant stand; where there are no ring-men to force the betting and deafen you with their blatant proffers--”to lay agin any thing in the race;” where the bold yeomen, in full confidence that their favorite will not be ”roped,” back their opinions manfully for crowns.
Livingstone's great local renown, and the reputation of the Axeine for strength and speed (though no one knew how fast he _could_ go), made the betting 5 to 4 on him; but takers were not wanting, calculating on the horse's truly Satanic temper. Miss Bellasys, who, with her mother, had arrived at Kerton the night before, laid half a point more--_not_ in gloves--on the heavy-weight.
The bell for saddling rang, and the horses came out. The mare stripped beautifully, as fine as a star--no wonder her mistress was proud of her; and I think she had, to the full, as many admirers as the Axeine.
The latter was a dark chestnut with a white fetlock, standing full 16 hands (while the mare scarcely topped 15), well ribbed up, with a good sloping shoulder, immense flat hocks, and sinewy thighs; his crest and forehand were like a stallion's; and, when you looked at his quarters, it was easy to believe what the Revesby stablemen said, ”They could shoot a man into the next county.”
He was ”orkarder than usual that morning,” the groom remarked; perhaps he did not fancy the crowd without the hounds, for he kept las.h.i.+ng out perpetually, with vicious backward glances from his red eyes.