“I should like to begin soon, if you can spare the time for me,” she said.  “I want to be able to go out with him when he comes back.  Do you think I shall be slow in learning?  Perhaps I ought to be lighter to ride well.”

“I think you will be pretty sure to have a first-class seat,” Osborn answered.  “You will be likely to look particularly well.”

“Do you think I shall?  How good you are to encourage me.  How soon could I begin?”

She was quite agreeably excited.  In fact, she was delighted by innocent visions of herself as Walderhurst’s equestrian companion.  Perhaps if she sat well, and learned fine control of her horse, he might be pleased, and turn to look at her, as they rode side by side, with that look of approval and dawning warmth which brought such secret joy to her soul.

“When may I take my first lesson?” she said quite eagerly to Captain Osborn, for whom a footman was pouring out a glass of wine.

“As soon,” he answered, “as I have taken out the mare two or three times myself.  I want to know her thoroughly.  I would not let you mount her until I had learned her by heart.”

They went out to the stables after lunch and visited the mare in her loose box.  She was a fine beast, and seemed as gentle as a child.

Captain Osborn asked questions of the head groom concerning her.  She had a perfect reputation, but nevertheless she was to be taken over to the Kennel stables a few days before Lady Walderhurst mounted her.

“It is necessary to be more than careful,” Osborn said to Hester that night.  “There would be the devil and all to pay if anything went wrong.”

The mare was brought over the next morning.  She was a shining bay, and her name was Faustine.

In the afternoon Captain Osborn took her out.  He rode her far and learned her thoroughly before he brought her back.  She was as lively as a kitten, but as kind as a dove.  Nothing could have been better tempered and safer.  She would pass anything, even the unexpected appearance of a road-mending engine turning a corner did not perceptibly disturb her.

“Is she well behaved?” Hester asked at dinner time.

“Yes, apparently,” was his answer; “but I shall take her out once or twice again.”

He did take her out again, and had only praise for her on each occasion.  But the riding lessons did not begin at once.  In fact he was, for a number of reasons, in a sullen and unsociable humour which did not incline him towards the task he had undertaken.  He made various excuses for not beginning the lessons, and took Faustine out almost every day.