When she came forth in the morning she wore the high look she had been
wont to wear in the years gone by, when she ruled in her father's house,
and rode to the hunt with a following of gay middle-aged and elderly
rioters. Her eye was brilliant, and her colour matched it. She held her
head with the old dauntless carriage, and there was that in her voice
before which her women quaked, and her lacqueys hurried to do her
bidding.

Devil himself felt this same thing in the touch of her hand upon his
bridle when she mounted him at the door, and seemed to glance askance at
her sideways.

She took no servant with her, and did not ride to the Park, but to the
country. Once on the highroad, she rode fast and hard, only galloping
straight before her as the way led, and having no intention. Where she
was going she knew not; but why she rode on horseback she knew full well,
it being because the wild, almost fierce motion was in keeping with the
tempest in her soul. Thoughts rushed through her brain even as she
rushed through the air on Devil's back, and each leaping after the other,
seemed to tear more madly.

"What shall I do?" she was saying to herself. "What thing is there for
me to do? I am trapped like a hunted beast, and there is no way forth."

The blood went like a torrent through her veins, so that she seemed to
hear it roaring in her ears; her heart thundered in her side, or 'twas so
she thought of it as it bounded, while she recalled the past and looked
upon the present.