officer and his daughter as a man might ride in a trance. Surely
within an hour the whole world had been changed! He rode on air
instead of solid soil, and the sunshine of heaven was not half so
brilliant as Harriet Hunsden's smile.

"Confess now, Sir Everard," she said, "you were shocked and
scandalized. I saw it in your face. Oh, don't deny it, and don't tell
polite fibs! I always shock people, and rather enjoy it than
otherwise."

"Harriet!" her father said, reprovingly. "She is a spoiled madcap, Sir
Everard, and I am afraid the fault is mine. She has been everywhere
with me in her seventeen years of life--freezing amid the snows of
Canada and grilling alive under the broiling sun of India. And the
result is--what you see."

"The result is--perfection!"

"Papa," Miss Hunsden said, turning her sparkling face to her father,
"for Sir Everard's sake, pray change the subject. If you talk of me,
he will feel in duty bound to pay compliments; and really, after such a
fast run, it is too much to expect of any man. There! I see Lady
Louise across the brook yonder. I will leave you gentlemen to
cultivate one another. _Allons, messieurs_!"

One fleeting, backward glance of the bewitching face, a saucy smile and
a wave of the hand, and Whirlwind had leaped across the brook and
ambled on beside the sober charger of Lady Louise.

"Every one has been talking of your riding, Miss Hunsden," Lady Louise