^l<WW>WMi?9««>"'*l**<*<"*'^''i*!l 
 
n -^^ 
 
/^ 
 
THE 
 
 Greymare 
 
 Romance 
 
 EDWIN J. ELLIS. 
 
 WITH TITLE-PAGE AND TWENTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS 
 BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 GEORGE ALLEN, 
 
 8, BELL YARD, TEMPLE BAR, LONDON; 
 
 AND 
 
 SUNNYSIDE, ORPINGTON. 
 1891. 
 
[y1// rights reserved.'] 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 TITLE-PAGE. 
 I. HAPPY DAYS OF INNOCENCE 
 
 
 . T 
 
 face 
 
 page 
 12 
 
 2. 
 
 UPLIFTED 
 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 3- 
 
 THE STERN DECREE 
 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 4- 
 
 HOME-BRED POLISH 
 
 
 
 
 iS 
 
 5- 
 
 UNRIPE STILL . . . . 
 
 
 
 
 19 
 
 6. 
 
 love's young dream . 
 
 
 
 
 21 
 
 7- 
 
 MATERNAL SOLICITUDE . 
 
 
 
 
 23 
 
 8. 
 
 paternal ADVICE . 
 
 
 
 
 27 
 
 9- 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY COURSE. — N 
 
 0. I 
 
 
 
 28 
 
 lO. 
 
 >! M M 
 
 r II 
 
 
 
 29 
 
 II. 
 
 M M I» 
 
 , III 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 12. 
 
 n 
 
 , IV 
 
 
 
 31 
 
 13- 
 
 M 
 
 . V 
 
 
 
 32 
 
 .14. 
 
 .. 
 
 , VI 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 15- 
 
 „ 
 
 , VII 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 16. 
 
 VIVA VOCE EXAMINATION 
 
 
 
 
 35 
 
IV 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 17. FREE-HOOF DRAWING EXAMINATION 
 
 18. NATURAL HISTORY EXAMINATION . 
 
 19. EDUCATION WITH HONOURS . 
 
 20. THE UNIVERSITY COURSE AT HOME 
 
 21. RIPE AT LAST .... 
 
 22. THE UNIVERSITY COURSE JUSTIFIED 
 
 23. " BLESS YOU, MY CHILDREN ! " 
 
 24. MAGNANIMITY 
 
 36 
 
 37 
 39 
 41 
 44 
 47 
 48 
 57 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " T DARESAY you think that as I am 
 only a little donkey my opinion is not 
 worth having," said a strange voice in my 
 ear ; adding, in an injured tone, " There, I 
 knew it." 
 
 Between the first words and the last I had 
 looked round for the speaker, and discovered 
 that there was no human being visible. The 
 time was near midnight. The place was 
 Barnes Common. I was young, and unpros- 
 perously, though not quite hopelessly, in love. 
 The weather was warm and cloudy. There 
 
 I 
 
2 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 was no moon. I had come out to think, 
 and was lying on my back doing so. 
 
 All of a sudden it flashed upon me that 
 perhaps, in the darkness, a Thought Reader 
 had come out with the same purpose, and had 
 been distracted from his intention by the 
 thread of my meditations, which I had been 
 told that these gifted people could decipher 
 from the mind-waves that roll out of the head 
 as easily as a clerk can read the tape that 
 crawls from a telegraphic machine. 
 
 I sat up and looked round. 
 
 " You are right enough so far," said the 
 voice, "but your commonest phases of con- 
 sciousness want cultivating. You do not even 
 know what you think yourself." 
 
 " Yes, I do," I replied, out loud, at hazard ; 
 for if one can do nothing else with a bodiless 
 voice one can at least contradict it. " I was 
 thinking, when you interrupted me, of the 
 way in which her hair last night " 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 3 
 
 " Before that," said the voice, with a quiet 
 assumption of knowing all that I had thought 
 about her hair last night. 
 
 " Well, let me see," I began, setting my 
 wits to work in earnest ; " before that we were 
 on the balcony, and her hand " 
 
 " I hate hands," said the voice, interrupting 
 again ; " before that, please." 
 
 " As you seem to know all about it," I 
 replied, getting irritated at last, " perhaps you 
 will tell me what you mean, and where you 
 are buried." 
 
 " I am not buried," it answered. 
 
 " Don't talk nonsense," I replied, " you are. 
 Even on this dark night I should see your 
 legs against the sky if you were standing 
 about here. It is my belief that you are 
 either a ghost, or a bit of new duplex tele- 
 graphy photophone, under the surface of the 
 common, working up through the grass on 
 account of the night dew having got through 
 
4 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 a crack of the insulators and established a 
 connection with the sod I am lying on." 
 
 The voice laughed, a rather unpleasant 
 laugh — laughs that indicate that we are fools 
 are so often unpleasant — and answered,— 
 
 " Do you not recollect that as you flung 
 yourself down you observed an outcast don- 
 key, grazing alone in the darkness, and said 
 to yourself, with what you thought would 
 have looked rather well by daylight as a 
 cynical smile, that you were the biggest ass 
 of the two ? " 
 
 It was a fact. And what was more, I 
 began to perceive that I was conversing with 
 the donkey himself, or, as I learned presently, 
 herself. 
 
 " Have I got brain fever ? " I exclaimed. 
 At the same moment the probable results 
 raced through my mind, — the discovery of a 
 well-dressed young man delirious on Barnes 
 Common, the identification, the paragraph in 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 5 
 
 the papers, the feelings of Violet when she 
 read it, my gradual recovery and restoration 
 to health, her assiduous care of me — that 
 was her pale face flitting by the bed side on 
 which my eyes had first dwelt with dreamy 
 consciousness of blessed repose when the 
 desperate struggle with the dark monster 
 was over, and youth and my iron constitution 
 had triumphed — and when her cool hand 
 
 was laid 
 
 " There you go about hands again," said 
 the little donkey, in an impatient voice ; " I 
 do so hate them — nasty pulpy silly things ; 
 and so cunning and treacherous, winding 
 round sticks and harness, and all that, and 
 worrying your life out — hands indeed ! I've 
 got none myself, I'm proud to say, and if 
 I overlook it in you, it is only because you 
 are unusually intelligent for a man, and so 
 I am glad to think as little about your 
 defects as possible. Now listen to me. 
 
6 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 When, on the stroke of midnight, one of 
 your lot and one of mine are face to face 
 and alone, and a ray of lucidity reveals to 
 you that you are not quite what you thought 
 yourself in the way of superiority to us, we 
 are permitted for one hour to speak to you. 
 As for my knowing what you were thinking, 
 that is nothing. We can all do that. We 
 are naturally what you call 'thought readers,' 
 only we are not such donkeys as to say so. 
 We should be worked to death in the city if 
 we admitted it. Carts are bad enough ; — but 
 
 commerce 
 
 At this word I thought for a moment that 
 she was going to bray, but she checked herself 
 and continued, — 
 
 " We have been fooling too long over this 
 explanation. I have a story to tell you of 
 myself and a friend, which may help you, 
 and I am willing to do it in return for your 
 moment of mental humility. So now, as 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 7 
 
 there are only about forty-five minutes left 
 
 before the opportunity is gone for ever, for 
 
 it would be too much to expect of you that 
 you should ever be humble again after you 
 have talked with me,— you had better listen." 
 
 I sat up and listened, feeling my pulse 
 furtively, and trying to remember what I had 
 read about the symptoms, and how the next 
 developments were likely to show themselves. 
 
 The Donkey paused to collect itself for a 
 long blast of concentrated egotism, and then 
 began as they do on the stage, when two 
 chairs are placed in the middle of a drawing- 
 room, right in the draught from the folding 
 doors. And this is what she said : — 
 
I 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 T was on this common that we first 
 met " 
 
 "Who first met?" I asked. 
 
 " Young Mr. Colter and I." 
 
 " Then you are a lady, V presume ? " I ex- 
 claimed, lifting my hat. 
 
 " Of course," she answered, quietly. 
 
 I did not presume to interrupt again, but 
 I remember saying to myself in a confused 
 sort of way, as I was putting my hat on 
 again, "Why not? There is nothing es- 
 sentially unsuited to a lady in being a " 
 
 There it stopped. The mute politeness that 
 regulates even our thoughts for us without 
 our knowing it, when we are meditating about 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 9 
 
 those to whom we look up, put a reverential 
 blankness over my mind before the last word 
 shaped itself consciously. Perhaps also I 
 had a half remembrance that my thoughts 
 were being read like a book, but that need 
 not have troubled me. On reflection, I do 
 not seriously suppose that even donkeys, 
 gifted as they are, can talk about the 
 romance of their lives, and perceive what 
 other people think of them at the same 
 time. 
 
 " You have heard," she continued, " an old 
 proverb which says that ' the grey mare is the 
 better horse,' — it is the motto of the family. 
 Mrs. Greymare was his mother. I need 
 hardly add that Mr. Greymare was his 
 father " 
 
 " Mr. Greymare ? " I muttered ; " sure- 
 ly " 
 
 " It hardly sounds like a masculine name, 
 does it ? " said the little Donkey. " But that 
 
lO THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 does not matter. I assure you I am quite in 
 order, — and in grammar. Just to give you 
 an example from among yourselves. In your 
 own language you say Mr. Siddons, do not 
 you? Very well. It is the same thing. If 
 you were obliged to say 'The husband of 
 Mrs. Siddons' each time, life would be too 
 short." 
 
 " Quite so," I assented, for I began to re- 
 flect that if we argued every point, life, or 
 rather three-quarters of an hoiir of it, would 
 not be long enough for the interesting story 
 I was about to hear. 
 
 " Well," she began again, " where was I ? 
 Oh, yes : on this common we met. How 
 changed it is ! There was hardly a house in 
 sight. There were green fields. There were 
 grazing grounds. There were horses, — did I 
 tell you that he was a horse ? Oh, how I 
 adored him ! Yes, and there were paddocks. 
 Dear me ! It was like paradise." 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. II 
 
 She was lapsing into meditation. To set 
 her going again, I asked, — " How old was 
 he?" 
 
 " One year," she said, " which you know is 
 as good as ten or twenty among you silly 
 men." 
 
 I hardly liked ten and twenty being mixed 
 up in this way. I was eighteen myself, and 
 knew the difference. But there is a purpose, 
 no doubt, of a providential kind in the super- 
 ciliousness of ladies on some subjects. It 
 may not be pleasant, but it is a natural pro- 
 tection against danger, like the ink of the 
 cuttlefish. 
 
 " Yes," she went on, " he was young. I 
 too was young, and considered very pretty. 
 I wore my hair all fuzzy over my large brown 
 eyes, which gave them a great deal of expres- 
 sion. He, too, had an unstudied carelessness 
 about his mane and tail which became 
 him. It was spring-time. It is generally 
 
12 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 spring-time when a horse is one year old. 
 We danced." 
 
 " I understand your feelings," I murmured. 
 
 " We did not dance like you, shuffling 
 spinning half asleep like night owls," she 
 replied. " We leaped for joy in the morning 
 sun. People thought it was flies. They were 
 wrong. It was love." 
 
 " Much the same thing," I threw in ; " wings, 
 you know, and prickly things, and all that." 
 
 " Oh, if you are a poet ! " she said, getting 
 up. 
 
 " No ! No ! No ! " I cried hurriedly, " sit 
 down and go on." 
 
 She sat down rather slowly, and began 
 again. " I am telling you about this for your 
 good. I do not expect you to understand it 
 altogether, and for mercy's sake do not keep 
 interrupting in a silly way to show off your 
 appreciativeness. It makes me nervous. 
 Well, as I was saying, we danced. Ah, my 
 
''-y-^"i--yr^ 
 
 -^ ^-^€,PP^ 
 
 
 ^-<c2S>' 
 
 {To /ace p. 12. 
 
 HAPPY DAYS OF INNOCENCE. 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 1 3 
 
 poor man ! If you could conceive the thrill 
 that passed through me when his hoof touched 
 mine " 
 
 " What is a thrill, please ? " I asked meekly. 
 
 " I wonder if I could explain it to you so 
 that you would understand," she answered. 
 " You see, when people don't grasp it by 
 instinct, there is something very difficult 
 about explaining the point of a thrill." 
 
 " Like a joke ? " I suggested. 
 
 " Not at all like a joke," she snapped out. 
 " There, you have quite upset me again. I 
 feel like a cart of vegetables with one wheel 
 knocked off unexpectedly. It is very trying." 
 
 "When his hoof touched yours " I 
 
 prompted, and waited for the result. 
 
 " Ah ! " she sighed, " it was so strange. 
 Yes, I think I can explain a thrill to you. 
 You feel all of a sudden as though all your 
 hair was blown off to the very tip of your 
 tail, like the fluff off a dandelion, and you 
 
14 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 remain like a smooth white kid glove on a 
 table. And then soft warmth plays down 
 your system, just as though the stable-cat's 
 kitten were rubbing its head all along your 
 back, and then " 
 
 She stopped again. I had dashed my hat 
 on the ground and was holding my head with 
 both hands. Reason tottered on her throne. 
 
 " Well, well, — I must hurry on," she said, — 
 " and come to the catastrophe. We were 
 observed." " So were we," — I groaned, 
 thinking of Violet and myself last night. 
 
 "We were observed, I stated," she con- 
 tinued. " Have the goodness to attend. Yes 
 Mr. and Mrs. Greymare had their eye on us. 
 They did not play fair. They turned their 
 backs and pretended to notice nothing." 
 
 " You have a way of saying * yes ' auto- 
 matically," I noticed. " I presume that you 
 caught the habit in replying to young Mr. 
 Greymare's proposals." 
 

 
 
 \_To face />. 15. 
 
 U PLI FTED. 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 1 5 
 
 " You are right," she murmured, — " I did 
 not, I could not say him nay." 
 
 Now that the whole thing returns to my 
 mind in broad daylight, I feel a hesitation 
 about writing that last word without a " g " and 
 an " h " in it somewhere, but I suppose it is all 
 right as it stands. I am not sure what she said 
 next. She went off into a kind of mumbling 
 ecstasy. Presently I distinguished a sentence 
 beginning " When our lips touched — ah, how 
 
 we were lifted up " and so on and so on. 
 
 It was easy to see which of us was the poet, 
 but I forbore to ask for explanations. Mr. 
 Colter might have been a regular Pegasus, — 
 a sort of fly horse, for anything I could tell. 
 As for her, I began to suspect that her con- 
 duct had been rather light. Of course I could 
 see nothing, partly because there was no 
 moon, and partly because she still wore her 
 hair fuzzy on her forehead to give expression 
 to her dark eyes. But by an increased 
 
1 6 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 warmth in the summer air that played about 
 us in the obscurity I knew that she was 
 blushing. 
 
 " The next moment," she shrieked, " we 
 were separated ! " 
 
 " So were we," I groaned again, and this 
 time she did not rebuke me. For some 
 moments we mingled our tears in silence. 
 

 \To face p. i6. 
 
 THE STERN DECREE. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 " T WILL not tell you," she resumed, " the 
 language of Mrs. Greymare. She need 
 not have reminded me that I was beneath 
 him. I never denied it. But there have been 
 cases. Did I not meet a tall mule in military 
 society whose father Cophetua was in the 
 Stud Book, and whose mother was no better 
 than I am ? And I am told they lived very 
 happily. Well, I suppose that it was fate. 
 Still, I think Mr. Greymare might have done 
 something. I glanced at him as I turned 
 away weeping, but he never said a word. 
 He looked sympathetic, poor soul, and I dare- 
 say his heart bled for me. Young Mr. Colter 
 shed tears as they led him off — I know he 
 
 2 
 
1 8 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 did, I found them on the common after- 
 wards. That thistle grows on the very spot. 
 It is a hard world ! " 
 
 " And what did they do next ? " I 
 asked. 
 
 " What did they do ? What did they not 
 do ? "■ They bought him a groom. They 
 taught him paces. They took him to the 
 Park. They got him up as if it was Church 
 Parade every day. They made him look so 
 stiff and sour that in a year he seemed to have 
 lived all his life in a club. He spent hours 
 every day in being curry-combed, brushed, 
 whisped, leathered, and hand-polished before 
 a cheval glass. They made him think of 
 nothing but himself He forgot me. He 
 ceased to wish to see me again. He had got 
 to know so much more than I. It would 
 have taken him a week to explain his dressing- 
 table to me. We were no longer equals. He 
 once saw me going to Covent Garden in a 
 

 ^^^¥^k^ 
 
 ' " .— \ 
 
 '^^^^«&4-:;ic^-'^^-^^^^»^ 
 
 k>'^ 
 
 
 r- /■.,l;I?/it>^/t? 
 
 ^^^'m^''^-^^-^^::^^ :d#^-^ 
 
 {To face p. i8. 
 
 HOME-BRED POLISH. 
 
[ To face p. 19. 
 
 UNRIPE STILL. 
 
THE GREVMARE ROMANCE. 1 9 
 
 cart. He turned away. I felt hurt so keenly 
 that the costermonger, though prompted by 
 kindness, was unable to distract niy thoughts 
 for an hour, until he cut his stick to a point 
 and poked a raw place on my hind quarters. 
 That did me good, and I was thankful to him. 
 It is well for all of us to be restored some- 
 times to a true perception of the realities of 
 life. I knew then for the first time that even 
 costermongers were part of the Scheme of 
 Things." 
 
 " Well — and what next ? " I asked, for she 
 had relapsed again into a silence heavy with 
 mute emotion. 
 
 " What next ? " she rasped out hoarsely, 
 coming a step nearer. " I will tell you what 
 next. They introduced him to an eligible 
 young Filly ! " 
 
 That was indeed hard. " And did she 
 accept him ? " 
 
 " Not a bit, at least, not at first — in fact, 
 
20 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 she turned up her nose at him, and told him 
 to go to school." 
 
 " And did he go ? " 
 
 " Yes, he did ; that is, he went to what I 
 suppose you would call the University. But 
 not all at once, you know. You see the 
 young Filly was such a good catch that Mrs. 
 Greymare thought that the danger of sepa- 
 rating them was too great. Just as she might 
 be coming round, Mr. Colter might be for- 
 getting her at a distance, and by the time she 
 was ready to accept him he might be entangled 
 with another. But you will hardly believe it. 
 He fell in love with her ! " 
 
 " No ! " 
 
 " Yes, he did ! Was it not disgraceful ? 
 And she did nothing but snub him. At last 
 he took to wandering alone in the woods 
 weeping for her — the wicked crocodile ! — and 
 cutting her image on a tree. They caught 
 him at it once. ' That boy must have 
 
i'Fo face p. 11. 
 
 "LOVES YOUNG DREAM." 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 21 
 
 distraction : it is preying on his mind,' said 
 Mrs. Greymare. ' He must ; it is,' said Mr. 
 Greymare, for he knew better than to go 
 beyond his orders. That was the way they 
 used to talk. Oh, / know them." 
 
 " Evidently you do. It is wonderful," I 
 answered. 
 
 " Not a bit. Don't I know j'ou ? " 
 
 " Yes," I replied modestly ; " but that is so 
 easy. I am only a man." 
 
 "If so much," said the little Donkey; and I 
 could see in the dark that she laid her ears back. 
 
 " Well," she went on, " so they walked him 
 home and began a long speech, and the end 
 of it all was, that if he did not go and im- 
 prove his mind at once he should be treated 
 like a foal again. They meant by that, of 
 course, to threaten him with having his groom 
 taken away ; and what is more, Mrs. Greymare 
 had the impudence to say that he should be 
 sent back to me as a punishment ! " 
 
22 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 " He was delighted, of course ! " 
 
 "Not a bit of it. The nasty fickle thing 
 had been growing up all the time from day 
 to day, and he made a sarcastic remark about 
 having passed the pons assinonun, and being 
 ready for a University course." 
 
 " Shameful ! " 
 
 " So I thought ; but I have grown up m}^- 
 self since, and I understand him. Well, the 
 thing was settled, and he was in good spirits 
 again. It takes very little to put a horse in 
 good spirits when he is good, and spirited. 
 A man, that wants discourse of instinct, would 
 have mourned longer." 
 
 I sighed, and fumbled in my breast for my 
 pocket " Hamlet." She continued : — 
 
 "So Mrs. Greymare set to work to pack 
 his box for him, because those hectoring 
 creatures are not without motherly tendencies 
 — it belongs to their self-importance, you 
 know. Oh, I heard all about it from the 
 
{To face p. 23. 
 
 MATERNAL SOLICITUDE. 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 23 
 
 servants after. There sat old Greymare in 
 the room, pretending to read the paper, but 
 swelling all the time with pride to think that 
 he had actually a son going to the University. 
 And above him hung the picture of his father 
 in an eighteenth-century attitude, when male 
 animals went in for what they called elegance. 
 Beyond, on the same wall, was a photograph 
 of Mrs. Greymare as a filly, and opposite the 
 window hung an old painting of the Black 
 Knight's head from King Arthur's chess 
 board, — the ancestor of the family. Mrs. 
 Greymare sat on the floor with the boy's box 
 before her, putting in everything she could 
 think of, while the young rascal stood and 
 laughed at her." 
 
 " What did he laugh for ? " I asked. 
 
 " Oh, maternal solicitude always seems a 
 good joke to the young," replied the wise 
 little Donkey. " I believe the fact is that she 
 wanted to put in knee-caps, and Thorley's 
 
24 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 food for cattle. Didn't your mother insert 
 mittens and jam when you went to Cam- 
 bridge ? " 
 
 " No, indeed ; I wish she had," I repHed. 
 
 " Well," said my Donkey, " I suppose not. 
 You are not exactly of my time, and the old 
 are getting so young now, and the young are 
 born so old, that it is really difficult to know 
 funny things from pathos, — or it would be, if 
 there were no more lovers. They are a great 
 comfort ; they unite the two, and the difference 
 doesn't matter." 
 
 "Then you are not one yourself?" 
 
 " Oh, no. I am cured, you know. That is 
 why I am relating this. But one's heart is 
 never quite so blank but what the trail of the 
 serpent will waft o'er it still, as the poet says. 
 I'm not so ignorant about poets. Ah, dear 
 me ! he has gone from me, and it is years 
 and years since I have heard his voice. But 
 even now the music of it lingers in my ears. 
 
THE GREYxMARE ROMANCE. 25 
 
 You would be surprised at the amount of 
 music that can linger in my ears." 
 
 " Not at all," I replied. 
 
 There was a displeased silence for a mo- 
 ment. I wonder why. Could I have said 
 anything impolite ? 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " \T TELL, my poor man, so the young 
 Greymare went up, as I believe they 
 call it, and was duly admitted. I don't know 
 the details, but at any rate he got in some- 
 how, and went about, looking rather sheepish 
 at first, in one of those hatchments they stick 
 on their heads, and a sort of Inverness cape 
 made of umbrella stuff they wear round their 
 shoulders at the University, rain or shine." 
 
 " I beg your pardon," said I, " the cap and 
 gown, which I suppose you are referring to, 
 are not in the least like a hatchment and 
 an Inverness cape." 
 
 " It is all the same to me,'' said the Donkey, 
 with importance in her voice. 
 
[To face p. 27. 
 
 PAT ERNAL ADVICE. 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 2/ 
 
 Perhaps she was right there. I did not 
 dispute the point. 
 
 " But the improving part, I am told," said 
 the Donkey, " was when his father took leave 
 of him in the tan-yard, or quadrangle, or 
 whatever they call it. He held his hoofs 
 long and hard, and at last said in a choking 
 voice, — 
 
 " ' Bless you, my colt ! Be good and indus- 
 trious.' 
 
 " ' I will, sire,' said the young fellow." 
 
 '^Did he say ' sire ' to his father ? " I asked. 
 
 " Of course," said my little friend, " colts 
 always do." 
 
 "But I trust that it went no farther," I 
 hinted. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " she asked inno- 
 cently. 
 
 " I mean," I answered, with a little hesita- 
 tion, " that I hope he did not say ' dam ' to 
 his mother." 
 
28 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 " Oh, I daresay he did," said the Donkey ; 
 " mares don't mind." 
 
 She was right there. I recalled having 
 ridden an old mare to hounds whom I often 
 addressed very much that way, though I had 
 no hereditary right to do so. She did not 
 mind in the least. 
 
 " And how did the young fellow get on 
 at the University ? " I asked. 
 
 " Very well, I believe," she answered. " He 
 was good and industrious. That is to say, 
 he was industrious that he might be good. 
 He chose his professors with care, and they 
 tell me he was soon as good with the gloves, 
 at any rate, as any one of his year, size, and 
 weight. But he went in for everything at 
 once. You should have seen him dive. I 
 was working down the towing-path at that 
 time, and it used to bring the tears into my 
 eyes. I thought it must require such courage 
 to dive, when one has such a very long nose. 
 
f To face p. 28. 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY COURSE. NO. I. 
 
[ To face p. 29- 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY COURSE. NO. II 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 29 
 
 Fancy how the river must have flowed to his 
 eyes, underground, so to speak ! But swim- 
 ming is an elegant, gentlemanly amusement. 
 They are not always racing as they do in 
 boats. I hate those boats. The two-year- 
 olds so often overstrain themselves, especially 
 in sculling. You see I know all about it. 
 My bargee used to explain to wandering 
 ladies on the banks, and wonder why they 
 were so stingy not to give him drinks. Of 
 course he did not know that it was shyness. 
 Lots of them would have liked to have given 
 him sixpence, only they had not the moral 
 courage. They did not know I could read 
 their thoughts. No more did he. He used 
 to be disappointed, and whenever he was he 
 used to kick me. How can men be so 
 clumsy as to kick forward? The thing is 
 absurd. I kicked him once, just to show him 
 how. But he never got up again. I think 
 I broke something. He was very drunk, and 
 
30 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 rolled into the river. Then I was sold back 
 to another coster. They thought they were 
 men. So they were. I despise men ! " 
 
 "It is very kind of you to talk to me so 
 much, in that case," I said. 
 
 " Oh, I don't mean lovers," she answered. 
 " I told you I made an exception in their 
 favour long ago. But I must go on telling 
 you about my dear boy's University career. 
 The fact was that he wanted to be perfect. 
 He read an advertisement in a sporting paper 
 about another colt that was not only ' reliable 
 at water,' — he was that already, and ' handy 
 with his feet,' the gloves made him that, — but 
 ' clever at tirhber ' too, so he took to cricket. 
 I don't profess to understand cricket, though 
 Mrs. Greymare has told me that fillies go in 
 for it now, and donkeys will come down to it 
 some day, for anything I can tell. They do 
 make such a fuss all about one little ball in 
 a big field. There is not the least reason to 
 
\ To face />. 30. 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY COURSE. NO. III. 
 
[To face p- yi. 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY COURSE. NO. IV. 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 3 1 
 
 run after it in the way they do. You could 
 knock a ton of balls that size about the same 
 ground, and there would be heaps of room. 
 And they very seldom hit each other with it. 
 I have seen much better fun at Covent Garden 
 when the costers were in good spirits, pota- 
 toes were cheap, and the policeman was not 
 looking." 
 
 " We will change the subject," said I, for 
 I felt myself getting angry. I am considered 
 a bit of a cricketer in more than one county, 
 and I don't look on the game as at all a fit 
 subject for joking. 
 
 " Well," said the Donkey, " if you like, I am 
 quite willing, for I don't think much more of 
 cricket than you do ; " which was a very spite- 
 ful remark, if she could still read my thoughts 
 at all. 
 
 " There is football, now," she went on. ** I 
 find some sense in football. Even m^n let out 
 pretty frankly there. I have seen kicks that 
 
J^ 
 
 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 would not disgrace a training stable. Of 
 course they don't kick back as they ought to, 
 except sometimes in a crowd, but when they 
 do ! — ! I used often to wish to run in and 
 have a turn with them. It was good, I can 
 tell you, and there cannot be the smallest 
 doubt about its being industry. I think if he 
 had been at the matches that old Greymare 
 would have been pleased." 
 
 " Judging by my own experience," I ven- 
 tured to say, " old Greymare would have 
 expected his young sprig to do a little of 
 his industry indoors. You can't take a very 
 high position with sports only." 
 
 " That shows you don't know much about 
 pole-jumping," she answered triumphantly. 
 " Why, I have seen that lad take a long stick 
 like the mast of a cutter, and run along with 
 it held out before him as if he intended 
 to go right through something. Then, when 
 he got near enough to a sort of high-level 
 
\To face p. 32. 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY COURSE. NO. V, 
 
\,To/ace p. 33- 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY COURSE. NO. VI. 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 33 
 
 curtain-rod up in the air, like the backbone 
 of the roof of a house without the side ribs 
 and end walls, he just planted his pole in the 
 ground at one end, and went sailing up as the 
 other end rose till he popped over the roof- 
 bar, leaving his pole behind, and descended 
 like a falling star. It was lovely." 
 
 " I daresay, but you can't take a degree like 
 
 that " 
 
 " Oh, rubbish. He could take a haystack 
 like that. I daresay j<??/ can't," she answ^ered. 
 " But," I insisted, " what did he study in- 
 doors ? " 
 
 " Oh, lots : Geography, to begin with. At 
 least the use of the globes, I'm certain. My 
 bargee saw him at it once. It is an experi- 
 mental sort of study. There's a green table : 
 that represents Space. There's a rim round it : 
 that must be allegorical for Fate, I suppose. 
 Then there are gaps in the rim, and nets 
 beyond the gaps, which mean Accident and 
 
 3 
 
34 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 Chance, or something of that kind. Then there 
 is a red globe, which means the World, — or the 
 Soul, I don't quite know ; and two white ones, 
 that must be Good and Evil (one has a black 
 spot, the wicked one), and these two go tilting 
 at the red one, and very often at each other, 
 and sometimes they all go to the chaos 
 outside. I think there is some improvement 
 in that study." 
 
 " Did your bargee tell you all this ? " I 
 asked. 
 
 " How stupid you are, — of course not ! " 
 she said. " You might have known it was 
 a Donkey's idea, if you had been paying the 
 smallest attention." 
 
 I begged pardon. 
 
 " But he must have studied lots more," she 
 went on. " Because of the way he came out at 
 the exams. " Oh yes, they have exams., just 
 like you, only much more sensible. There's 
 the vwd voce to begin with. They do that 
 
VToface p. 34- 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY COURSE. NO. VII. 
 
I ,9 
 
 
 ^y^ir/^-t^'k. 
 
 ?^if^-^ 
 
 iToface p. 35. 
 
 VIVA VOCE EXAMINATION. 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 35 
 
 on Brighton Downs. Three examiners post 
 themselves at distances of a third of a mile 
 apart, in a row. My boy made himself heard 
 with perfect ease by the very furthest of them. 
 What do you think of that ? Full marks ? " 
 
 " I could not have done that," I answered 
 modestly. 
 
 " You ! ! ! " she said. 
 
 There was a long silence, during which my 
 wounded humility swelled up and became 
 very painful. I had noticed before that ladies 
 who are in love are not always scrupulously 
 careful of the feelings of persons of another 
 sex. Considerations of species and its limita- 
 tions do not always weigh with them. This 
 is undoubtedly an imperfection in their 
 characters. There is so very little, except 
 character, that is attractive in ladies, that im- 
 perfections in the character department are 
 peculiarly trying. I am not able to say for 
 certain .that they are infrequent. This is my 
 
36 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 serious opinion. I must press it upon Violet's 
 father. I think he will recognise that I have 
 a decided vocation, considering my age, for 
 the profession of husband. 
 
 " I daresay you think that is all," she con- 
 tinued, when she saw that philosophy was 
 beginning to console me, and that the silence 
 did not ache quite so much. 
 
 " Doubtless," I murmured. 
 
 "You mean you don't care," she said, — 
 " but that is only your envy. However, I will 
 tell you. There was Free-hoof Drawing. 
 That is Art, if you like. My colt could draw a 
 wagon and get in the shafts correctly without 
 even looking at it. What do you think of 
 that ? " 
 
 " Full marks," I murmured, — " with the 
 whip," I added to myself I knew that she 
 heard my thought that time, but for some 
 reason or other she made no comment I am 
 sorry to say that her abstention gratified me. 
 
^"7^ 
 
 [ To face /. 36. 
 
 FREE-HOOF DRAWING EXAMINATION. 
 
Mrnm^: 
 
 il 
 
 iLrrviffr 
 
 
 {To /ace p. 37. 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY EXAMINATION 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 3/ 
 
 It is strange how revengeful the best of us are. 
 When I say the best of us, of course. I mean 
 myself. This is not vain-glory. It is habit, 
 like eating and drinking. They say that if 
 you deprive a man absolutely of salt in his 
 food he will die. I wonder if he could live if 
 you extracted all element of conceit from his 
 mind. I don't think he could ; I am quite sure 
 that he ought not to. I think I will not force 
 this opinion upon Violet's father. 
 
 "Then there was Natural History," she 
 went on. " I helped him there. Can you 
 imagine the question that turned the scale ? 
 It was about the natural diet of the domestic 
 ass. No one else knew. He answered it, on 
 paper, unmistakably. I believe I may say 
 that his University distinctions are not with- 
 out credit to me, though of course I do not 
 claim any praise for it myself Still, you must 
 admit that if I had not existed at all, things 
 would have been different. I hope you do 
 
38 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 not consider that as going too far. There is 
 nothing I dislike more than people who take 
 what is not their due. I never heard any 
 one say that donkeys liked praise except 
 a German, and I think he hardly knew what 
 he was saying. I know that he once made an 
 English friend of his very angry by clapping 
 him on the back and calling him a ' prig.' 
 He said that he meant a good square fellow 
 and that it was allegorical slang, as every 
 one knew that a prig was what you built a 
 house with. So you see he meant a ' brick.' 
 He also says that he thinks it very foolish 
 of his friend to have called him a ' plastered 
 fool.' I do not like to know what he meant 
 by that. He writes that he has gone back to 
 Germany to find some one who understands 
 English." 
 
[To /ace p. 39. 
 
 EDUCATION WITH HONOURS. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 " AND so, to sum up," I said, having had 
 almost as much as I could endure of 
 this touching narrative, " your young friend 
 carried everything before him, and came honie 
 crowned with laurels, and followed by an 
 obsequious attendant bearing a whole tray- 
 ful of race cups and other sporting trophies, 
 while medals glittered on his bosom, and 
 parchment certificates and diplomas followed 
 by luggage train ? " 
 
 " Yes ! Yes, indeed ! " she cried, clasping 
 her hoofs in ecstasy at the recollection. " It 
 is all true. Oh ! they were right to tear him 
 from me. I feel it now more than I ever did. 
 Oh ! I cannot tell you how keenly I feel it. 
 
40 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 The truth seems to dig into me Hke a coster- 
 monger." 
 
 Not having desired to produce quite such 
 a vivid impression, I decided to control my 
 impatience and take to the interrogative mood 
 once more. 
 
 " And what did you do ? " I asked. 
 
 *' I ? Oh, I acted nobly, heroically," said 
 my poor little friend, wiping away a tear ; and 
 added, in a plaintive voice, " Donkeys always 
 do." 
 
 " And the old people ? " I said, to get to 
 a less distressing part of the subject. 
 
 " Don't speak of them ! Oh, the proud, 
 silly, puffed-up things ! " cried the little crea- 
 ture, trembling with rage. " x^s if it was any 
 merit of theirs ! And he was so good and 
 so modest all the time, casting down his eyes 
 and not making anything of it, while they 
 went on with * Bravo, my boy,' and ' Oh, my 
 dear son,' and ' You are a colt of the old 
 
\To face p. 41. 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY COURSE AT HOME. 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 4 1 
 
 Strain ! ' and so on. But wait a bit. He will 
 be off somewhere else, one day, perhaps in 
 America, and they will be old, and lame, and 
 bony, and I shall see them in Covent Garden 
 with raw shoulders and no zinc ointment. 
 I'll let them know who I am as I go past. 
 I'll give them a look ! They'll remember me 
 then. Oh, the wicked, heartless old balloons ! " 
 
 We sank into silence again. Preoccupied 
 on her part ; prudent on mine. 
 
 Presently she began once more. 
 
 " And the worst of it was that nothing 
 would take them down. When the shyness 
 once wore off, the way in which he used to 
 stand with his back to the fire at home and 
 hold forth would have curdled the blood of 
 any right-minded parents. His father liked 
 it. I don't believe he understood three- 
 fourths, for he had never been a reading colt 
 in his youth ; an average Learned Pig at a 
 fair could beat him any da}-. But I believe 
 
42 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 he liked the idea that his boy had got familiar 
 with more names than he had ever heard. 
 Young Colter knew the whole studbook, back 
 to early Egypt, and all the plates they had 
 run for. I think the Philosopher's plate (with 
 a stone in it at one time, and a cup at 
 another) must have been the worst of all. 
 They ran for it on their heads, and there was 
 no handicapping. There is now, though 
 All the entries simply start at the winning- 
 post and never run at all. They sit there 
 and read the names of the winners of former 
 times, and the one that reads most gets the 
 plate." 
 
 " Bless my soul ! " I exclaimed, " what kind 
 of a race do they call that ? " 
 
 " Education ! " said the little Donkey, with 
 such a contemptuous snort that it withered 
 the grass for three yards round. 
 
 I drew myself back a few inches. Perhaps 
 her scorn was reasonably justifiable, but I 
 
THE GREYMARE ROiSIANCE. 43 
 
 had sat at that winning-post reading the 
 winners' names myself. It is strange how 
 an unfortunate personal experience can warp 
 our opinions on the simplest matters. 
 
 Besides which, I had a sort of vague idea 
 that she was taking advantage of mere figures 
 of speech as though they were arguments. 
 That sort of thing is apt to embitter the very 
 friendliest of relations. Sympathy between 
 sad lovers is a pretty bond, no doubt. But 
 if once an intrusive figure of speech comes 
 along, and begins to make mischief, it is hard 
 to say how long it will last. 
 
 We sulked for two precious minutes. 
 
 She made the first advances. Donkeys 
 have so little sense of dignity. 
 
 " I did not mean to hurt your feelings, sir," 
 she murmured, as meek as a rabbit. 
 
 I made a herculean effort to be generous. 
 
 " What can my feelings possibly be in com- 
 parison with yours ? " I contrived to croak out, 
 
44 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 a little huskily, perhaps. " Please go on with 
 your story," I added, with as desperate an 
 attempt at cheerful interest as could be 
 expected on such short notice. 
 
 " My story ? " she said ; " oh ! it is hardly 
 worth going on with. And besides, it is so 
 very painful. But it is so good of you to 
 mind. I daresay you expect what was the 
 next thing. He actually went down by twi- 
 light, when the new moon was just above the 
 trees, and sat outside the stable on a truss 
 of hay by the young filly with his foreleg 
 round her withers. The cat on the roof told 
 me all about it. And he said the most beau- 
 tiful things to her about the moon. I am 
 sure I do not know where he got it from. 
 He never used to talk about the moon to me. 
 And the way in which he looked at her, and 
 she looked at him, with their eyes so close 
 the cat really thought they were trying to 
 change eyelashes. But I hardly suppose that 
 
\To face p. 44. 
 
 RIPE AT LAST 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 45 
 
 was realh' the case. It must be a ver}- 
 painful operation, and I don't think lovers 
 ever do anything really painful for each other 
 — at least, not sensible lovers. It spoils con- 
 versation so if you are hurt. It doesn't spoil 
 conversation to say the same things over 
 again, though ; at least, not for lovers. And 
 they did that. The cat learned every word 
 at last, and came and told it all to me. I 
 could not help listening, though it was just 
 like so many stabs in my bosom. I would 
 tell you all about it, but I daresay you have 
 done the very same, and it seems to make 
 you angry when we do the same things that 
 you do — I am sure I do not know w^hy. I 
 think I do not know many things. I used 
 to suppose I did, but I don't." 
 
 Here she came to another stop, over- 
 whelmed by her own humility. She seemed 
 to have a way of running into conversational 
 sidings, and getting brought up dead still by 
 
46 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 a different embankment of emotion each time. 
 I suppose there was a want of consistency 
 in that, but it is very hard to say whether 
 consistency is such a great merit after all. 
 At any rate, I have always heard that when 
 two people feel differently, this is variety, and 
 everybody praises variety. The world would 
 be so flat without it, they say. And incon- 
 sistency is only one person doing the work 
 of two. It is variety in a nutshell. 
 
 "And so, and so, — and so," went on my 
 little rejected one, " that was the way. And 
 the old people knew all about it and never 
 said a word. One afternoon he and the 
 young filly came strolling along together in 
 the very field where she had seen him and 
 snubbed him when they were first introduced. 
 They were recalling it now with the greatest 
 satisfaction, and going over every inch of the 
 interview, including all the unspoken part. 
 It was, 'Then I said this,' and 'Then you 
 
[ To face p. 47- 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY COURSE JUSTIFIED. 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 47 
 
 looked that,' and ' Then I felt the other,' and 
 ' Oh ! how little I knew thenl and so forth." 
 I understood these microscopic diagrams of 
 automatic globules of soul invisible to the 
 naked heart. Love is an awful lens. When 
 you get time to leave off using it as a 
 burning-glass, and begin to peep through, 
 you are amazed at what you see. 
 
 " Well," went on the little one, " right in 
 the middle of the field sat the old people. 
 They looked up and saw the young lovers 
 coming, and Mrs. Grey mare said, — ' Were 
 we not just like that at their time of life ? ' 
 ' One of us is just like that now, my love,' 
 he answered, looking at her in a meaning 
 manner. He was really a very sensible horse. 
 She must have led him an awful life for him 
 to have acquired so much judgment. Yes, 
 a little bird told me. The stable cat was not 
 there. I get to hear everything that happens, 
 one way or another." 
 
48 THE GREYxMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 " It must be most interesting," I murmured. 
 
 "Interesting!" she cried; "oh, yes! It 
 is enormously interesting to be heart-broken, 
 I assure you. It takes up all one's attention 
 just for the time. But I was going to tell you 
 what they did. They — I mean that wicked 
 boy and girl — went right up to the old gentle- 
 man, as bold as if he was a judge at an agri- 
 cultural show, and then dropped down with 
 a sweet smile on their knees before him. 
 That brought things to a climax at once. Old 
 Greymare got out his blessing and pressed it 
 on to the tops of their heads. Mrs. Greymare 
 got out her handkerchief and pressed it to her 
 eyes. They really did look too silly ! I was 
 ashamed of them. Then they all came home 
 together, and there was such going about and 
 exchaneino; calls from field to field. The 
 hedges were made chiefly of gaps for weeks 
 after, all through the country. It was a good 
 thing for young Colter that he had practised 
 

 [To /ace p. ^i. 
 
 "BLESS YOU, MY CHILDREN!" 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 49 
 
 casting down his eyes and looking uncom- 
 fortable when he came back in all his glory 
 from* the university. It made some sort of a 
 lead for him, for he had to follow himself in 
 the same line now — the only difference that 
 it was genuine this time. He did feel foolish. 
 He knew at the bottom of his heart that he 
 was being shown off as a kind of new orna- 
 ment that the young filly had got to wear. 
 The married horses used to give him an eye 
 now and then from under their forelocks, and 
 just lay back one ear playfully for a moment. 
 They knew the whole staircase of which he 
 had got his foot on the first step. They knew 
 the extraordinary and paradoxical nature of 
 its architecture too, for whereas man and wife 
 tread it together in step, such is the con- 
 struction of the ladder that one goes up- 
 stairs and one goes downstairs for ever and 
 ever." 
 
 •' May I ask," I interrupted, with some 
 
 4 
 
50 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 hesitation, " where you learned to speak so 
 nicely about all this ? " 
 
 " From an owl," replied my Donkey, rather 
 shortly. Then she continued, " But the ex- 
 citement began when the presents came 
 pouring in. There were three hundred 
 and seventy-nine of them. A magpie, who is 
 taking care of the portable ones in an old oak 
 tree, counted them for me. There was not 
 at first such variety as you would suppose. 
 Some people sent complete sets of harness, 
 Munster clothing for indoors, surcingles, pillar- 
 reins, and so forth. The greater number sent 
 shoes. If they had been straightened out a 
 light railway could have been made of them. 
 Lots of these were in silver, much too good 
 for every-day use. Some were plated, which 
 is silly, for after a single gallop the plating 
 wears off and shows the copper, and then, for 
 the life of you, you dare not lift up your heels 
 for fear of being caught. And then the nails ! 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 5 I 
 
 Some had fancy heads. Some were steel. 
 Some were patent screws. Some were mere 
 wooden pegs. Some — I am ashamed to say — 
 had been used before, and were cleaned and 
 beaten out for the occasion. Most were of 
 the usual kind. There were ten pails full of 
 them. The pails came separately. So did 
 the wheelbarrow from a royal stable. That 
 young filly went wheeling it about all day, 
 and tilting it up to show the monogram. 
 Really, I have no patience to tell you of all 
 the things they had." 
 
 I could not but feel flattered, in the short 
 pause that she made here to collect her re- 
 miniscences, to see that at least my little friend 
 had no doubt about the patience of her 
 listener. I think I had deserved this, but 
 the flattery we get from ladies is more apt 
 to be of free gift, election, and grace, than 
 works. 
 
 In the innocence of my heart I supposed 
 
52 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 we had got to the end of the subject of the 
 presents. I should know better now, but I 
 was not married then, and the action of the 
 feminine mind still had its mysteries for me. 
 I was soon undeceived. 
 
 " Yes," — said the little one, just as though 
 I had spoken, — " I think those nails gave 
 more trouble than all the rest. There were 
 so many of them, you see, and the greater 
 part had no maker's name or any sign on the 
 parcel to say where one could go afterwards 
 and change them at a loss for something 
 useful. And there is always a certain amount 
 of danger in advertising them in a paper, like 
 ' The Lady Mare,' for instance. People are 
 so sharp at catching that sort of thing, and 
 one never knows what they read. Besides, 
 arrangements had to be made that the actual 
 exchange was not to come off till after the 
 ceremony, because a lot of the givers would 
 be there looking out for their presents, which 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 53 
 
 quite filled a loose box and two stalls. If 
 some female relation had missed hers, there 
 would have been a family quarrel that might 
 have injured the prospects of the foals, — if 
 any. There was just one nail that the young 
 filly would not have parted with at any 
 price, for she was not absolutely heartless, after 
 all. That had belonged to a poor spavined 
 old thing that had drawn a cart in the same 
 farm, and went limping round and round now 
 in a brick-crushing machine. She pulled it 
 out of her cracked foot with her own teeth, 
 for she could not afford to buy one, and 
 was too proud to beg. The consequence was 
 that the shoe came half off, and a workman 
 who had never been in a blacksmith's office 
 in his life hammered in a great house-nail 
 instead, and it went to the wrong place, and 
 gave more pain to the wretched thing than if 
 he had run it into her eye. She had to limp 
 and groan for three weeks after, and never 
 
54 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 said a word. It is a very touching story, 
 isn't it ? You don't often hear of that sort of 
 devotion among the humans, do you ? " 
 
 I was certainly not prepared with a case on 
 all fours with it from members of my own 
 species. The story went on : — 
 
 " Well, — I suppose, being a man, you can 
 hardly be expected to know enough to under- 
 stand all about these things, so I will just tell 
 you in two words that the ceremony was 
 simply splendid. The bride looked lovely, 
 with her mane all frizzed and filled with 
 white clover flowers. She had to roll in them 
 from eight o'clock in the morning till ten, and 
 then keep quite still to prevent their falling 
 out before the breakfast. Her white coat 
 shone like satin, and she was followed to the 
 paddock by six young strawberry roans, 
 walking two and two like a circus. Her 
 father gave her away. He was an old 
 charger from the Scots Greys, and looked 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 55 
 
 very grand and military, especially about the 
 nose. Poor young Colter was as nervous 
 as if he had never been to college, and if his 
 Best Horse had not given him a nudge and 
 whispered to remember his triumph in the 
 viva voce examination, he wouki never have 
 brought out a sound. When it was over they 
 all sat down to bran mash with beer in it, 
 and you ought just to have seen the cutting 
 of the Thorley's food cake. I cried, I do 
 assure you, but not with envy. Still, I could 
 not help thinking what it would have been 
 like if I had been in her place. And they 
 do say that it need not have been such an 
 unequal match after all, for though I could 
 never become what he was, if he had married 
 me he would certainly have been what I am, 
 and equality is everything in married life. 
 
 " There was a noble speech from the old 
 trooper full of beautiful thoughts. I wish I 
 could remember it for you." 
 
56 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 " Please do not," I gasped faintly. 
 
 " Oh, you would admire it, I know. It was 
 all about keeping neck and neck through the 
 race of life, and remembering not to expect 
 it to be all on the flat, but preparing the mind 
 for the steeplechase course that it really was, 
 and never swerving at the five-barred gate of 
 difficulty, or jumping short at the waters of 
 affliction, and doing all this so as to keep in 
 condition for greater things in case your 
 country needed you ; and when the trumpet 
 
 for the last great charge should sound 
 
 but I cried so much I really can't remember 
 it all." 
 
 " Please do not distress yourself," I mur- 
 mured. 
 
 " And I'll tell you what I did ! " she sud- 
 denly began again, with a last dash of cheer- 
 fulness. " Just as they drove away I suddenly 
 remembered that there were some old shoes 
 nailed inside the barn door. And I got in 
 
[To face J>. 57- 
 
 MAGNANI MITY. 
 
THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 57 
 
 and scrambled over the straw anyhow, and 
 hooked one down and sent it flying after them 
 like a quoit. I do hope it will bring them 
 good luck. At any rate, it only just escaped 
 breaking both their necks, and that is always 
 something at a wedding. Well — well — well 
 — so it is past, and my little dream of life 
 is done. I am very glad to have had this 
 opportunity of telling you all about it, and I 
 sincerely hope it will have done you good." 
 
 At this moment the clock struck one. The 
 charm was over. I started to my feet. I 
 was alone. A sound of retreating steps and 
 a dim form jogging away, with long ears 
 flapping in the darkness, assured me that I 
 had, at least, been not entirely victimised by 
 hallucination. 
 
 How far the whole incident was a little 
 dream of my own I really cannot say. I 
 should like to go down to the common again 
 at the same witching hour and try once more, 
 
58 THE GREYMARE ROMANCE. 
 
 but times are changed. I have been through 
 the dread experience of young Colter Grey- 
 mare myself now, and I am expected to be 
 in when I ought to be, and if I am out late 
 it is no longer in an irresponsible manner 
 like a stray sheep, but with a white shirt in 
 front and a black coat on my back, and the 
 coachman ordered at a pre-arranged moment 
 to take me — no, I should have said to take 
 7is — home. 
 
 Still, it may do some one else good — who 
 knows ? Here it is, at any rate, on the 
 chance. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 
PUBLICATIONS 
 
 GEORGE ALLEN 
 
 BY AUGUSTUS J. C HARE, 
 
 NORTH-EASTERN FRANCE. 
 
 I vol., crown 8vo, cloth, los. 6d. With Map and 86 
 Woodcuts. 532 pages. 
 
 Picardy — Abbeville and Amiens — Paris and its Environs — Arras 
 and the Manufacturing Towns of the North— Champagne— Nancy 
 and the Vosges, etc. 
 
 SOUTH-EASTERN FRANCE. 
 
 I vol., crown Svo, cloth, los. 6d. With Map and 176 
 Woodcuts. 600 pages. 
 
 The different Lines to the South— Burgundy — Auvergne— The 
 Cantal— Provence— The Alpes Dauphinaises and Alpes Maritimes, 
 etc. 
 
 SOUTH-WESTERN FRANCE. 
 
 I vol., crown Svo, cloth, los. 6d. With Map and 232 
 Woodcuts. 664 pages. 
 
 The Loire — The Gironde and Landes — Creuse— Correze— The 
 Limousin — Gascoiny and Languedoc — The Cevennes and the 
 Pyrenees, etc. 
 
 London : GEORGE ALLEN, 8, Bell Yard, Temple Bar ; and 
 Sunnyside, Orpington. 
 
BY EDWARD T. COOK, M.A., 
 Author of "A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery." 
 
 STUDIES IN RUSKIN: 
 
 Some Aspects of Mr. Ruskin's Work and 
 Teaching. 
 
 llhistraied with Eight Full-page and Five Half -page Wood- 
 cuts^ specially prepared ajid engraved for this work. 
 
 Small post 8vo, cloth, 6s. Also a Large-paper Edition, 
 crown 4to, 21s, 
 
 Containing, in addition to the above-mentioned Woodcuts, 
 Thirteen Full-page Autotypes of Drawings by Mr. Ruskin in the 
 Ruskin Drawing School, here reproduced for the first time by 
 special permission of the Curators of the University Galleries and 
 of the Master of the Drawing School. 
 
 Contents : — Part I. : " The Gospel According to Ruskin." 
 Principles of Art— Apphcations to Life.— Part II. : Some 
 Aspects of Mr. Ruskin's Work. Mr. Ruskin and Oxford— 
 The Ruskin Drawing School— Mr. Ruskin and the Working 
 Men's College— Mr. Ruskin's May Queens— The St, George's 
 Guild and Museum — Some Industrial Experiments— Mr. Rus- 
 kin and the Booksellers.— Appendices : Containing Notes on 
 Mr. Ruskin's Oxford Lectures. 
 
 GOSSAMER AND SNOWDRIFT. 
 
 The Posthumous Poems of Charles Mackay, LL.D., 
 F.S.A. 
 
 With an Introductory Memoir by the Poet's Son, Eric 
 Mackay, Author of ^' Love-Letters of a Violinist" etc. 
 
 In I vol., crown 8vo, cloth, 5s. 
 
 London : GEORGE ALLEN, 8, Bell Yard, Temple Bar ; and 
 
 Sunnyside, Orpington. 
 2 
 
- NOVELS BY BLANCHE ATKINSON. 
 
 THE WEB OF LIFE. 
 
 Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s. 
 
 "When so many novels have a cynical flavour, it is a great 
 pleasure to be able to recommend one which touches a good 
 many of the sore places of our social system, and yet breathes 
 throughout a spirit of charity to all classes." — Guardian, Sep- 
 tember 25, 1889. 
 
 " A clever and thoughtful book . . . decidedly above the 
 average ; and it is suggestive as well as interesting." — Graphic, 
 October 26, 1889. 
 
 " No one could wish a prettier bit of reading for holiday hours." — 
 Literary IVorld, September 20, 1889. 
 
 THEY HAVE THEIR REWARD. 
 
 Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s. 
 
 "Miss Atkinson is to be congratulated upon having added a 
 genuinely original touch of romance to the familiar miser of 
 fiction." — AthouEuin, May 17, 1890. 
 
 "We are ready to take a good deal for granted, if the personages 
 of a story really interest us, as they certainly do in Miss Atkinson's 
 story." — Spectator, August 23, 1890. 
 
 " The promise furnished by • The Web of Life ' is here ful- 
 filled. There pervades it, from first to last, an earnest moral 
 purpose." — Liverpool Mercury, May 7, 1890. 
 
 " It is not a commonplace story, and treats some important 
 questions with a freshness and originality that are very attrac- 
 tive."— 6"/?^^^/^^ Independent, May 10, 1890. 
 
 " We have not come across a better all-round book than this for 
 a long i\xa.&"—Cluirch Reviezv, October 3, 1890. 
 
 London : GEORGE ALLEN, 8, Bell Yard, Temple Bar ; and 
 
 Sunnyside, Orpington. 
 
 3 
 
BY REV. BASIL EDWARDS, M.A., 
 
 Late of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge ; Rector of 
 Ashleworth, Gloucester. 
 
 SONGS OF A PARISH PRIEST. 
 
 IFiik Full-page Woodcut of Old Churchyard Cross at Ashle- 
 worth, and Music to " Our Mother Church of England.'" 
 
 In Parchment Wrapper, 2s. ; cloth, 2s. 6d. ; roan, gilt edges, 
 4s. 6d. Second Edition. 
 
 Extract from Preface. 
 
 "It has seemed to the writer of this little book, that in 
 every parish and every country village there are, besides the 
 living voice of the Church, numberless silent witnesses which 
 appeal to her sons' and daughters' hearts ; and that all the 
 associations, even of the material things which form part of 
 and surround the 'houses of God in the land,' are intensely 
 sacred, and are full of teaching. The quiet of a country 
 charge has enabled the writer to endeavour to link together 
 many of the objects most prominently connected with sacred 
 thought in a rural parish, and to present the results to the 
 reader in somewhat of a sequence, leading step by step from 
 the Lych-Gate to the Altar."' 
 
 " They seem to me singularly attractive, both in grace of com- 
 position and in spirit and thought. I have not often been so much 
 touched and satisfied by sacred poetry. It is a gift to us all, 
 for which I am grateful.— Yours faithfully, R. W. Church. The 
 Deanery, St. Paul's, August 10, 1888." 
 
 London : GEORGE ALLEN, 8, Bell Yard, Temple Bar ; and 
 
 Sunnyside, . Orpington. 
 
 4 
 
"^^Xc^^-^N ^t^ ^-^0