Now I could swim myself."
He sent his horse along at a tremendous pace for a moment, then drew him
in, and turned towards Julian.
"We are learning the lesson of the spring," he said.
As he spoke a light from some hidden place shot for an instant into his
eyes and faded again. Julian laughed gaily. The ride spurred his spirits.
He was conscious of the recklessness created in a man by exercise.
"I could believe that you were actually growing, Val," he said, "growing
before my eyes. Only you're much too old."
"Yes; I am too old for that," Valentine said.
A sudden weariness ran in the words, a sudden sound of age.
"The truth is," he added, but with more life, "my nature is expanding
inside my body, and you feel it and fancy you can see the envelope echo
the words of the letter it holds. You are clever enough to be fanciful.
Gently, Raindrop, gently!"
He quieted the mare as they turned into the road. Just as they were
passing under the arch into the open space at Hyde Park corner a woman
shot across in front of them. They nearly rode over her, and she uttered
a little yell as she awkwardly gained the pavement. Her head was crowned
with a perfect pyramid of ostrich feathers, and as she turned to bestow
upon the riders the contemptuous glance of a cockney pedestrian, who
demands possession of all London as a sacred right, Julian suddenly
pulled up his horse.
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