The expression of the faces of the two girls instantly changed. A
pained dignity and resignation, apparently born of the most harrowing
experiences and controlled only by perfect good breeding, was distinctly
suggested in their features and attitude as they stood patiently by the
wreck of their overturned buggy awaiting the oncoming coach. In sharp
contrast was the evident excitement among the passengers. A few rose
from their seats in their eagerness; as the stage pulled up in the road
beside the buggy four or five of the younger men leaped to the ground.

"Are you hurt, miss?" they gasped sympathetically.

Susy did not immediately reply, but ominously knitted her pretty
eyebrows as if repressing a spasm of pain. Then she said, "Not at all,"
coldly, with the suggestion of stoically concealing some lasting or
perhaps fatal injury, and took the arm of Mary Rogers, who had, in the
mean time, established a touching yet graceful limp.

Declining the proffered assistance of the passengers, they helped each
other into the coach, and freezingly requesting the driver to stop at
Mr. Peyton's gate, maintained a statuesque and impressive silence. At
the gates they got down, followed by the sympathetic glances of the
others.

To all appearance their escapade, albeit fraught with dangerous
possibilities, had happily ended. But in the economy of human affairs,
as in nature, forces are not suddenly let loose without more or less
sympathetic disturbance which is apt to linger after the impelling
cause is harmlessly spent. The fright which the girls had unsuccessfully
attempted to produce in the heart of their escort had passed him to