"'Yes,' I answered, 'I saw him from the window this morning.'
"Lillie looked me straight in the face a moment, and then said, with a little plaintive shake of the head: 'Ah, I see! You will laugh at him like all the rest. But you must see him go,--he is almost handsome then.'
"'I should think he might be,' I answered, trying to console her for my lack of admiration.
"'They are so mean about him,' she went on, smiling. 'When he was two years old they were going to give him away because he was so ugly and stupid; but I begged hard that he might stay at Darrow, and my father gave him to me for my own. I have had him now four years. You don't know how much I have suffered for that horse. But I have never despaired, and have trained him so well that he has great speed already, though they may laugh at his rough looks. O, if I can only win this race! It will be such a feather in my cap!'
"Satterlee laughed merrily at this. 'As zealous a racer as ever, I see, Miss Lillie. How I wish you would let me ride for you!'
"'Perhaps I may,' she answered. 'There is no knowing to what straits I may be driven.'
"Already something in this woman attracted me, dead as I supposed my heart to be. There was an indescribable freshness and vigor about everything she said and did, so different from the manner of the ladies I had lately seen,--a merry, defiant way which invited battle, and made one feel bright and springy. How can I tell what it was? I loved the woman from that very morning, and I love the memory of her now,--she stood so unembarrassed, so full of life, as we two ate our breakfast in the little, sunny room,--she was so lithe, so symmetrical. When we rose she said, 'My father thought you would like to fish with him, Mr. Satterlee, and Mr. Erle is to ride with me, if he so pleases.' I murmured a few words of compliment, and she went on: 'Come out to the barn and choose a horse, and Mr. Satterlee may have a look at the colt.' We followed her out of doors, just as we were,--hatless, like herself.
"'It is no fine stable we have at Darrow, but the horses are well off, and I pass so much time with them that I love the old, dingy place,' she said, as we crossed the yard.
"It was a great country barn, in truth, low and warm, with places for cows and sheep as well as horses. A broad floor ran from one great door to the other, covered with loose wisps of hay and straw, and above our heads was the winter's store of both. A red rush-bottomed chair and a table stood at one end,--two little pieces of furniture around which cluster the pleasantest memories of my life,--Lillie's chair and Lillie's table, where she sat to sew and sing among her animals. What happy mornings I spent there by her side.