I taught thee naught decent, and thou never heard or saw aught to teach thee.

Damn me!" almost with moisture in his eyes, "if I know what kept thee from going to ruin before thou wert fifteen." She sat and watched him steadily.
"Nor I," quoth she, in answer.

"Nor I--but here thou seest me, Dad--an earl's lady, sitting before thee." "'Twas thy wit," said he, still moved, and fairly maudlin.

"'Twas thy wit and thy devil's will!" "Ay," she answered, "'twas they--my wit and my devil's will!" She rode to the hunt with him as she had been wont to do, but she wore the latest fashion in hunting habit and coat; and though 'twould not have been possible for her to sit her horse better than of old, or to take hedges and ditches with greater daring and spirit, yet in some way every man who rode with her felt that 'twas a great lady who led the field.

The horse she rode was a fierce, beauteous devil of a beast which Sir Jeoffry himself would scarce have mounted even in his younger days; but she carried her loaded whip, and she sat upon the brute as if she scarcely felt its temper, and held it with a wrist of steel.
My Lord Dunstanwolde did not hunt this season.