By-and-by we ascended a long hill, and the man got out and walked at the horse's head.
I should have liked to walk, too, very much indeed; but I did not know how far I might do it; and, in fact, I dared not speak to ask to be helped down the deep steps of the gig.

We were at last at the top,--on a long, breezy, sweeping, unenclosed piece of ground, called, as I afterwards learnt, a Chase.

The groom stopped, breathed, patted his horse, and then mounted again to my side.
"Are we near Hanbury Court ?" I asked.
"Near! Why, Miss! we've a matter of ten mile yet to go." Once launched into conversation, we went on pretty glibly.

I fancy he had been afraid of beginning to speak to me, just as I was to him; but he got over his shyness with me sooner than I did mine with him.

I let him choose the subjects of conversation, although very often I could not understand the points of interest in them: for instance, he talked for more than a quarter of an hour of a famous race which a certain dog-fox had given him, above thirty years before; and spoke of all the covers and turns just as if I knew them as well as he did; and all the time I was wondering what kind of an animal a dog-fox might be.
After we loft the Chase, the road grew worse.