gentle deference and respect of his manner as he answered me! He
was hardly bold enough to raise his eyes to mine, when I looked
at him. Absorbed in the Paradise of my own making, I rode on
slowly, and was only aware that friends had passed and had
recognized me, by seeing him touch his hat. I looked round and
discovered the women smiling ironically as they rode by. That one
circumstance roused me rudely from my dream. I let Michael fall
back again to his proper place, and quickened my horse's pace;
angry with myself, angry with the world in general, then suddenly
changing, and being fool enough and child enough to feel ready to
cry. How long these varying moods lasted, I don't know. On
returning, I slipped off my horse without waiting for Michael to
help me, and ran into the house without even wishing him
"Good-day."

VIII.

AFTER taking off my riding-habit, and cooling my hot face with
eaude-cologne and water, I went down to the room which we called
the morning-room. The piano there was my favorite instrument and
I had the idea of trying what music would do toward helping me to
compo se myself.

As I sat down before the piano, I heard the opening of the door
of the breakfast-room (separated from me by a curtained archway),
and the voice of Lady Claudia asking if Michael had returned to
the stable. On the servant's reply in the affirmative, she
desired that he might be sent to her immediately.

No doubt, I ought either to have left the morning-room, or to