Whether
it was all true or not I cannot tell; all I can say is that the major
only told what he had heard and believed, or had himself seen.
Vavasor, annoyed at the involuntary and natural enough nervousness he
had shown, for it was nothing more, turned his annoyance on the Major,
who by such an insignificant display of coolness, had gained so great an
advantage over him in the eyes of the ladies, and made up his opinion
that in every word he said about the horse of the Rajah of Rumtool he
was romancing--and that although there had been no slightest pretence to
personal prowess in the narrative. Our judgment is always too much at
the mercy of our likes and dislikes. He did indeed mention himself, but
only to say that once in the street of a village he saw the horse at
some distance with a child in his teeth shaking him like a terrier with
a rat. He ran, he said, but was too far off. Ere he was half-way, the
horse's groom, who was the only man with any power over the brute, had
come up and secured him--though too late to save the child.
They were following the course of the river, and had gradually descended
from the higher grounds to the immediate banks, which here spread out
into a small meadow on each side.
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