Cecil was sorry they were so near.  She felt more interested in the conversation than in the party, and gazed wistfully down a by road that would have led them in an opposite direction.

“I wish I dare turn sharp off,” thought she.  “But, no! we are conventional beings.  This idiotic performance is the goal and object of our expedition.  I am driving, and must do nothing so indecently eccentric.”

So she gave “Wings” a flick with her whip, that sent him up to his bit with his knees in his mouth, and they drew rein on the edge of the snow mountain.

Miss Tremaine’s bright face was just on a level with the top, drawing up her own toboggin.

“Here’s this dear little Lily,” said Bertie.

“Your diminutives are curiously applied,” said Cecil.  “That is a very substantial petite.”

“How late you are,” cried Miss Tremaine, rushing up to them.  ‘Wings,’ who couldn’t bear waiting, began to rear.  “Gracious, Cecil, does he feed on yeast-powder to make him ‘rise’ so?  How do you do, Captain Du Meresq?  Come along; there’s some capital jumps.  Here’s my little brother will hang on to the horse’s head till we find some one else, if you are sure ‘Wings’ will not soar away with him, like an eagle with a lamb.”

“I’d better billet him on that farm,” said Du Meresq, driving off.

“And I must go and speak to Mrs. Armstrong,” said Cecil.

CHAPTER XI.

EFFECTS OF TOBOGGINING.

With a slow and noiseless footstep

Takes the vacant chair beside me,
Lays her gentle hand in mine. 
—­Longfellow.

A little further on, by a blazing fire, was seated the hostess and about a dozen other people on benches and rugs; a table spread with refreshments and hot liquids attracted as many more.  The grey sky and white ground threw out the figures solidly, the only patches of colour being the bright petticoats of the ladies as they flashed down or toiled up the snow mountain.

“Have a ‘cock-tail,’ Miss Rolleston?” said Captain Wilmot, of the Fusiliers.  “I have just made a capital one; and then may I steer you down on my toboggin?”

Cecil accepted both propositions.  “But do take mine, for I have never tried it yet.”

“What a beauty,” said Lilla, enviously.  “It doesn’t look over strong, though; I shouldn’t wonder if it broke in two.  You’ll have to mind the hole at the bottom; there have been a lot in already.”

For the information of the uninitiated, I may as well describe how this hilarious amusement is conducted.  Having first selected the highest hill the neighbourhood affords, well covered with slippery frozen snow, two individuals who purpose forming the freight of the toboggin pose themselves, the foremost holding the reins, which, however, are more for effect than use, sitting between the feet of the hindmost traveller, who steers with his hands.