He gave a little start. "No. I wouldn't put you on that horse."
"I shouldn't be at all afraid of him. I never saw such a beauty. Perhaps you will be astonished to hear, Mr. Blake, considering I am a town girl, that I don't mind what I sit, short of a regular buckjumper. I can even manage a little mild pig-jumping."
He laughed. "This horse won't even pig-jump. And I am not surprised at hearing of your being able to do anything—that is courageous and interesting."
"Thank you. But the last clause was such an evident afterthought that I don't know whether to take that speech as a compliment or not. And you know you weren't to pay me compliments. Mr. Blake, can you imagine what is the one passionate desire of my life—at present?"
"Please tell me?"
"To have a gallop on Moonlight's Abatos."
"It is possible that you may attain even that summit of bliss, if, as you once suggested, Moonlight were to carry you off."
Elsie laughed, "Moonlight isn't in the least likely to show himself in the district while Captain Macpherson and his men are hanging round. Did you know that he was to be here to-day?"
"Who—Moonlight? asked Mr. Dominic Trant, who had joined them.
"Good morning, Mr. Trant," said Elsie turning. "No, not Moonlight; but Captain Macpherson. What an odd expression you have got on your face! What are you thinking of?" Trant burst into a laugh.
"I was thinking, Miss Valliant, what a curious dramatic sort of thing it would be if Moonlight and Captain Macpherson were to meet here as fellow guests. It's not impossible, you know."
"It strikes me as most improbable," said Elsie with gravity. She thought Trant's laugh rather familiar, and certainly ill-timed. "At least I hope so, for Moonlight's sake. I always confess to a strong admiration for Moon-
