without another word, she turned, gathered up riding-whip and
gloves, and went from the room. She heard Mrs. Ingleton utter a
fierce, malignant laugh as she went.




CHAPTER IV

THE VICTOR

The commencement of the fox-hunting season was always celebrated by
a dance at the Town Hall--a dance which Sylvia had never failed to
attend during the five years that she had been in society and had
been a member of the Hunt.

It was at her first Hunt Ball, on the occasion of her _debut_, that
she had met young Guy Ranger, and she looked back to that ball with
all its tender reminiscences as the beginning of all things.

How superlatively happy she had been that night! Not for anything
that life could offer would she have parted with that one precious
romance of her girlhood. She clung to the memory of it as to a
priceless possession. And year after year she had gone to the Hunt
Ball with that memory close in her heart.

It was at the last of these that George Preston had asked her to be
his wife. She had made every effort to avoid him, but he had
mercilessly tracked her down; and though she had refused him with
great emphasis she had never really felt that he had taken her