second groom and shivered.  Then the horse rose like a rocket, lifting Travers so high in the air that he thought Satan would never come down again; but he did come down, with his feet bunched, on the opposite side of the stream.  The next instant he was up and over the hill, and had stopped panting in the very centre of the pack that were snarling and snapping around the fox.  And then Travers showed that he was a thoroughbred, even though he could not ride, for he hastily fumbled for his cigar-case, and when the field came pounding up over the bridge and around the hill, they saw him seated nonchalantly on his saddle, puffing critically at a cigar and giving Satan patronizing pats on the head.

“My dear girl,” said old Mr. Paddock to his daughter as they rode back, “if you love that young man of yours and want to keep him, make him promise to give up riding.  A more reckless and more brilliant horseman I have never seen.  He took that double jump at the gate and that stream like a centaur.  But he will break his neck sooner or later, and he ought to be stopped.”  Young Paddock was so delighted with his prospective brother-in-law’s great riding that that night in the smoking-room he made him a present of Satan before all the men.

“No,” said Travers, gloomily, “I can’t take him.  Your sister has asked me to give up what is dearer to me than anything next to herself, and that is my riding.  You see, she is absurdly anxious for my safety, and she has asked me to promise never to ride again, and I have given my word.”

A chorus of sympathetic remonstrance rose from the men.

“Yes, I know,” said Travers to her brother, “it is rough, but it just shows what sacrifices a man will make for the woman he loves.”

LOVE ME, LOVE MY DOG

Young Van Bibber had been staying with some people at Southampton, L.I., where, the fall before, his friend Travers made his reputation as a cross-country rider.  He did this, it may be remembered, by shutting his eyes and holding on by the horse’s mane and letting the horse go as it pleased.  His recklessness and courage are still spoken of with awe; and the place where he cleared the water jump that every one else avoided is pointed out as Travers’s Leap to visiting horsemen, who look at it gloomily and shake their heads.  Miss Arnett, whose mother was giving the house-party, was an attractive young woman, with an admiring retinue of youths who gave attention without intention, and for none of whom Miss Arnett showed particular preference.  Her whole interest, indeed, was centred in a dog, a Scotch collie called Duncan.  She allowed this dog every liberty, and made a decided nuisance of him for every one around her.  He always went with her when she walked, or trotted beside her horse when she rode.  He stretched himself before the fire in the dining-room, and startled people at table by placing his cold nose against their hands or putting his paws on their gowns.