She thanked him, and without a word to her servants took the seat beside
him.
III
Immediately the mule began to trot the Countess began to smile again.
Relief and content were painted upon her handsome features. Denry soon
learnt that she knew all about mules--or almost all. She told him how
she had ridden hundreds of miles on mules in the Apennines, where there
were no roads, and only mules, goats and flies could keep their feet on
the steep, stony paths. She said that a good mule was worth forty pounds
in the Apennines, more than a horse of similar quality. In fact, she was
very sympathetic about mules. Denry saw that he must drive with as much
style as possible, and he tried to remember all that he had picked up
from a book concerning the proper manner of holding the reins. For in
everything that appertained to riding and driving the Countess was an
expert. In the season she hunted once or twice a week with the North
Staffordshire Hounds, and the _Signal_ had stated that she was a
fearless horsewoman. It made this statement one day when she had been
thrown and carried to Sneyd senseless.
The mule, too, seemingly conscious of its responsibilities and its high
destiny, put its best foot foremost and behaved in general like a mule
that knew the name of its great-grandfather.
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