IN THE SHADOW
mirth Leyden nodded to Virginia and clicked to the horses.
"Eh bien, chèr Comte!" he called over his shoulder, "… au revoir!"
"Au revoir, mon chèr docteur … au revoir, camarade! Oh … oh … ha-ha-ha- …" and then as an afterthought, "Au revoir, mademoiselle!" and so they parted.
For a furlong they rode in silence; Virginia pale, mute, Leyden smiling to himself.
"If I did not like you," said Virginia, at length, "and if I did not think that you liked me, I should be very much afraid of you. There was something positively uncanny in the manner in which you put that great primitive intellect through its tricks."
"Ach! It was as I told you; first I encouraged him and he rode across me rough shod; then I snubbed him and he cowed; the tactics are the same which one employs with a wet Newfoundland; next I am kind, and he licks my hand; then I play with him, and he romps and rolls and runs after the stick and forgets that he was cuffed. Do you not find, …" he glanced at her narrowly, "that the spectacle lessens your awe of the wild animal?"
"But he is just as strong as ever," replied Virginia. "He did strongly what you made him want to do. He is just as imposing as ever like his horse, if he is subdued. It is his great, blind, primitive strength which is impressive. I doubt if he has any soul."
Leyden nodded, looked thoughtful, disappointed. For perhaps a mile they rode in silence, each absorbed—Virginia in herself, Leyden in Virginia.
96
