She took our meadow fence lengthwiselike, and at the hitching rack she threw the bridle over the post, dismounted, and then I saw she had been riding astride, like a man.

I ran before her and opened the sitting-room door, but no one was there, so I went on to the dining-room.

Father had come in, and mother was sitting in her chair.

Both of them looked at the Princess and never said a word.
She stopped inside the dining-room door and spoke breathlessly, as if she as well as the horse had raced.
"I hope I'm not intruding," she said, "but a man north of us told our Thomas in the village that robbers had taken quite a large sum of hidden money you held for the county, and church, and of your own, and your gun, and got away while you were at church last night.

Is it true ?" "Practically," said my father.
Then my mother motioned toward a chair.
"You are kind to come," she said.