you going to ride?" he asked her abruptly. "You said at Cannes that you
meant to ride when you came to Oxford."

"My aunt doesn't approve."

"As if that would stop you! I can tell you where you can get a horse--a
mare that would just suit you. I know all the stables in Oxford. Wait
till we meet on Thursday. Would you care to ride in Lathom Woods? (He
named a famous estate near Oxford.) I have a permit, and could get you
one. They are relations of mine."

Constance excused herself, but scarcely with decision. Her plans, she
said, must depend upon her cousins. Falloden smiled and dropped the
subject for the moment. Then, as they moved on together through the
sinuous ways of the garden, flooded with the scent of hawthorns and
lilacs, towards the open tent crowded with folk at the farther end,
there leapt in both the same intoxicating sense of youth and strength,
the same foreboding of passion, half restlessness, and half
enchantment....

* * * * *

"I looked for you everywhere," said Sorell, as he made his way to
Constance through the crowd of departing guests in the college gateway.
"Where did you hide yourself? The Lord Chancellor was sad not to say
good-bye to you."

Constance summoned an answering tone of regret.

"How good of him! I was only exploring the garden--with Mr. Falloden."