Kate Coventry | Page 4

to let me go down to Ascot with him
all alone by our two selves the following day.
How pleasant it is to wake on the morning of a gala day, to hear the
carts and cabs rumbling and clattering in the streets, and to know that
you must get up early, and be off directly after breakfast, and will have
the whole livelong day to amuse yourself in. What a bright sunshiny
morning it was, and what fun I had going with John in a hansom cab to
Paddington--I like a hansom cab, it goes so fast--and then down to
Windsor by the train in a carriage full of such smart people, some of
whom I knew quite well by name, though not to speak to. The slang
aristocracy, as they are called, muster in great force at Ascot. Nor could
anything be more delightful than the drive through Windsor Forest up
to the Course--such a neat phaeton and pair, and John and I like a
regular Darby and Joan sitting side by side. Somehow that drive
through Windsor Forest made me think of a great many things I never
think of at other times. Though I was going to the races, and fully
prepared for a day of gaiety and amusement, a half-melancholy feeling
stole over me as we rolled along amongst those stately old trees, and
that lovely scenery, and those picturesque little places set down in that
abode of beauty. I thought how charming it would be to saunter about
here in the early summer mornings or the still summer nights, and
listen to the thrush and the blackbird and the nightingale in the copse;
and then I thought I would not care to wander here quite alone, and that
a whisper might steal on my ear, sweeter than the note of the thrush and
the nightingale; and that there might be a somebody without whom all
that sylvan beauty would be a blank, but with whom any place would
become a fairyland. And then I fell to wondering who that somebody

would be; and I looked at Cousin John, and felt a little cross--which
was very ungrateful; and a little disappointed--which was very unjust.
"Here we are, Kate: that's the Grand Stand, and we'll have the carriage
right opposite; and the Queen's not come, and we're in heaps of time;
and there's Frank Lovell," exclaimed the unconscious John as we drove
on to the Course, and my daydreams were effectually dispelled by the
gay scene which spread itself before my eyes.
As I took John's arm and walked into the enclosure in front of the stand,
I must confess that the first impression on my mind was this--"Never in
my life have I seen so many well-dressed people collected together
before;" and when the Queen drove up the Course with her brilliant
suite of carriages and outriders, and the mob of gentlemen and ladies
cheered her to the echo, I was such a goose that I felt as if I could have
cried. After a time I got a little more composed, and looked about at the
different toilettes that surrounded me. I own I saw nothing much neater
than my own; and I was pleased to find it so, as nothing gives one
greater confidence in a crowd than the consciousness of being well
dressed. But what I delighted in more than all the bonnets and gowns in
the universe were those dear horses, with their little darlings of jockeys.
If there is one thing I like better than another, it is a thoroughbred horse.
What a gentleman he looks amongst the rest of his kind! How he walks
down the Course, as if he knew his own value--self-confident, but not
vain--and goes swinging along in his breathing-gallop as easily and as
smoothly as if I was riding him myself, and he was proud of his
burthen! When Colonist won the Cup, I felt again as if I could have
cried. It was a near race, and closely contested the whole way from the
distance in. I felt my blood creeping quite chill, and I could perfectly
understand then the infatuation men cherish about racing, and why they
ruin their wives and children at that pursuit. What a relief it was when
the number was up, and I could be quite satisfied that the dear bay
horse had won. As for the little jockey that rode him, I could and would
have kissed him! Just then Cousin John came back to me, with his
sunny, laughing face, and I naturally asked him, "Had he won his
money?" John never bets; but he replied, "I'm just as pleased as if I'd
won a fortune; only think, Frank Lovell has landed twelve hundred!"

"Well," I replied, "I am