to accept the encounter.

"I'll fix you yet," he finally muttered, and left the room. A few
moments afterward, the three friends were mounted and riding briskly
toward Riverside manor.




CHAPTER IV.


Oriana, after awaiting till a late hour the return of her brother and
his friend, had retired to rest, and was sleeping soundly when the party
entered the house, after their remarkable adventure. She was therefore
unconscious, upon descending from her apartment in the morning, of the
addition to her little household. Standing upon the veranda, she
perceived what she supposed to be her brother's form moving among the
shrubbery in the garden. She hastened to accost him, curious to
ascertain the nature of the excitement in Richmond on the preceding
afternoon. Great was her astonishment and unfeigned her pleasure, upon
turning a little clump of bushes, to find herself face to face with
Harold Hare.

He had been lost in meditation, but upon seeing her his brow lit up as a
midnight sky brightens when a passing cloud has unshrouded the full
moon. With a cry of joy she held out both her hands to him, which he
pressed silently for a moment as he gazed tenderly upon the upturned,
smiling face, and then, pushing back the black tresses, he touched her
white forehead with his lips.