Mayne Reid

The White Gauntlet Mayne Reid

A woman in a wood?encountered accidentally, and alone. ?Tis an encounter to challenge curiosity?even though she be but a gipsy, or a peasant girl gathering sticks. If a high-born dame, beautiful,?and, above all, bright-haired,?curiosity is no longer the word; but admiration, involuntary, unrestrained?bordering upon adoration. It is but the instinct of man?s heart to worship the fairest object, upon which man?s eye may rest; and this is a beautiful woman, with bright hair, met in the middle of a wood. Marion Wade possessed all the conditions to merit such exalted admiration. She was high-born, beautiful, and bright-haired. She was alone in a wood. It did not detract from the interest of the situation, that she was mounted on a white horse, carried a hawk on her hand, and was followed by a hound. She was unaccompanied by human creature?hawk, hound, and horse being her only companions. It must have been her choice to be thus unattended. Wishing it, the daughter of Sir Marmaduke Wade might have had for escort a score of retainers.