Be off!" Tom was in the saddle, and the mare reared beneath him with a snort of glad anticipation.

She had done no work this many a day, being kept in readiness for Tom's use, with only the needful modicum of exercise up and down within hail of her stable.
Lord Claud stretched out his hand, and Tom put his within it.

After all, he loved this man in spite of all his faults and follies, and the strange reputation which clave to him.

He might be false, but Tom had trusted him, and he desired to trust him to the end.
Then he rode forth in the soft summer darkness, turning the mare's head westward at first, to get clear of the streets and houses, and only heading her north and then east as he made a wide circuit of the city.
To ride through it would have been to court capture; and even as it was, as he sprang forward upon the better road which lay straight for the forest to the northeast, he had a suspicion of being followed, although he could see nothing as he looked back.
The mare bounded beneath him with great, elastic strides.

He could afford to laugh pursuit to scorn.