I'm not going to ride with you, my
dear boy."
"You wait! You'll change your mind when you see Laura Candy's little brown
mare. Let me bring her up for you to see, to-morrow. Look here, I'm to
send over for her to-night. Oh, hang it all, Deleah, we'll put off the
marrying for a time if you like, but I've set my heart on having some
rides together. You don't know how proud I shall be to ride with you
beside me down Broad Street, and through the market-place, and up St.
Margaret's Lane. It will give all the cackling old women something to talk
about."
It was with difficulty she made him understand that to help him to afford
food for gossip was not her ambition, that she declined his escort on
horseback through the streets of her native town, as well as his
companionship through life. The events of the day had hardened her heart;
and she succeeded in convincing him at last.
"And, Reggie, you are not to come to our house any more; you are never to
write me letters; you are not to waylay me in the streets."
"Oh, I say, Deleah! Come! You can't mean it."
"I mean every word."
"But can't I sometimes meet you by accident even?"
"If you do I shall cut you."
"And if I won't be cut?"
"I shall call a policeman.
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