MOBILE DIGITAL LIBRARY - SOCIETY OF YOUNG NIGERIAN ...

trustfulness I was rash enough to add a caress and to pat her soft neck. She stoppedinstantly with a hysteric shudder. I knew what was passing through her mind: she hadsuddenly become aware of my baleful existence.The saddle and bridle Chu Chu was becoming accustomed to, but who was this living,breathing object that had actually touched her? Presently her oblique vision was attractedby the fluttering movement of a fallen oak leaf in the road before her. She had probablyseen many oak leaves many times before; her ancestors had no doubt been familiar withthem on the trackless hills and in field and paddock, but this did not alter her profoundconviction that I and the leaf were identical, that our baleful touch was somethingindissolubly connected. She reared before that innocent leaf, she revolved round it, andthen fled from it at the top of her speed.The lane passed before the rear wall of Saltello's garden. Unfortunately, at the angle ofthe fence stood a beautiful Madroño-tree, brilliant with its scarlet berries, and endeared tome as Consuelo's favorite haunt, under whose protecting shade I had more than onceavowed my youthful passion. By the irony of fate Chu Chu caught sight of it, and with asuccession of spirited bounds instantly made for it. In another moment I was beneath it,and Chu Chu shot like a rocket into the air. I had barely time to withdraw my feet fromthe stirrups, to throw up one arm to protect my glazed sombrero and grasp anover-hanging branch with the other, before Chu Chu darted off. But to my consternation,as I gained a secure perch on the tree and looked about me, I saw her—instead of running