"I don't think anything of the
kind," she said, "only I want you to go away. I shall go back to the
house, and I hope you won't accompany me. If you do, I shall turn
the other way." Whereupon she did retire at once, and he was left
standing in the path.
There was a seat there, and he sat down for a moment to think of it
all. Should he persevere in his suit, or should he rejoice that he
had escaped from such an ill-conditioned minx? He remembered that he
had read, in his younger days, that lovers in novels generally do
persevere, and that they are almost always successful at last. In
affairs of the heart, such perseverance was, he thought, the correct
thing. But in this instance the conduct of the lady had not given him
the slightest encouragement. When a horse balked with him at a fence,
it was his habit to force the animal till he jumped it,--as the groom
had recommended Phineas to do. But when he had encountered a decided
fall, it was not sensible practice to ride the horse at the same
place again. There was probably some occult cause for failure.
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