"Thou art mistaken, Hania, in thinking that thou art the cause. I shall clear the gate to amuse myself."
Thus speaking, in spite of the protests of all save my father, I mounted and moved forward at a walk into the alley of lindens. Franek opened the gate and closed it after me. I had bitterness in my soul, and would have gone over the gate had it been twice as high. When I had ridden about three hundred yards, I turned the horse and began at a trot, which I changed to a gallop immediately.
All at once I noticed that the saddle was moving. One of two things had happened,—either the girth had stretched during the former leap, or Franek had loosened it to let the horse breathe, and through stupidity, or perhaps forgetfulness, had not informed me.
Now it was too late. The horse was approaching the gate at the highest speed, and I did not wish to stop him. "If I kill myself, I shall kill myself," thought I. I pressed the sides of the horse convulsively. The air whistled in my ears. Suddenly the points of the gate gleamed before my eyes. I waved my whip, felt myself borne through air, a scream from the porch struck my [79] ears, it grew dark in my eyes—and after a while I recovered from a faint.
I sprang to my feet.
"What has happened?" cried I. "Was I thrown? I fainted."
Near me were my father, the priest, Pani d'Yves, Selim, Kazio, and Hania white as linen, with tears in her eyes.
"What is the matter? What is the matter?" was the cry on all sides.
"Nothing at all. I was thrown, but that was not my fault. The girth was stretched."
In fact, after the momentary faint I felt perfectly well, only breath lacked me a little. My father fell to touching my hands, feet, shoulders.
"It does not h
Get ALL YOU CAN BOOKS absolutely FREE for 30 days. Download our FREE app and enjoy unlimited downloads of our entire library with no restrictions.
Have immediate access and unlimited downloads to over 200,000 books, courses, podcasts, and more with no restrictions.
Everything you download during your trial is yours to keep and enjoy for free, even if you cancel during the trial. Cancel Anytime. No risk. No obligations.
For just $19.99 per month, you can continue to have unlimited access to our entire library. To put that into perspective, most other services charge the same amount for just one book!
As avid readers, we understand the joy of immersing ourselves in a captivating story or getting lost in the pages of a good book. That's why we founded All You Can Books back in 2010, to create a platform where people can access an extensive library of quality content and discover new favorites.
Since our founding days, we’ve continuously added to our vast library and currently have over 200,000 titles, including ebooks, audiobooks, language learning courses, podcasts, bestseller summaries, travel books, and more! Our goal at All You Can Books is to ensure we have something for everyone.
Join our community of book lovers and explore the world of literature and beyond!
But don't go around and whine and cry like a whim about it, and especially do not hurt the one you love because you your own make a selfish decision.
What I despise the most was that he consider hims