Tom walked up to the great mare and renewed acquaintance with her before swinging himself lightly to the saddle.

She made an instinctive dart with her head, as though to seek to bite his foot; but he patted her neck, touched her lightly with the spur, and sat like a Centaur as she made a quick curvet that had unseated riders before now.
The next minute the pair had started forth in the murky twilight of the autumn evening; but the moon was rising and the mists were dispersing.

Before they had left the houses behind they could see the road clear before them, and were able to give their impatient steeds their heads, and travel at a steady hand gallop.
Tom had approached London from the north, so that all this country was new to him.

He delighted in the feel of a horse betwixt his knees again; and the vagaries of the high-bred mare, who shied and danced at every flickering shadow, kept his pulses tingling and his heart aglow during the whole of that moonlight ride.
Lord Claud said little.

He too had need of some horsemanship, for the black barb he rode was full of fire and spirit.