bridle-fripperies, caught his red sash and bullion buttons, struck a
parting flash from his silver spurs, and he was gone!

For a moment the light streamed unbrokenly through the wood. And then
it could be seen that the yellow mass of undergrowth HAD moved with the
passage of another figure than his own. For ever since he had entered
the shade, a woman, shawled in a vague, shapeless fashion, had watched
him wonderingly, eagerly, excitedly, gliding from tree to tree as he
advanced, or else dropping breathlessly below the fronds of fern whence
she gazed at him as between parted fingers. When he wheeled she had run
openly to the west, albeit with hidden face and still clinging shawl,
and taken a last look at his retreating figure. And then, with a faint
but lingering sigh, she drew back into the shadow of the wood again and
vanished also.


CHAPTER III


At the end of twenty minutes Mr. Hamlin reined in his mare. He had just
observed in the distant shadows of a by-lane that intersected his road
the vanishing flutter of two light print dresses. Without a moment's
hesitation he lightly swerved out of the high-road and followed the
retreating figures.

As he neared them, they seemed to be two slim young girls, evidently
so preoccupied with the rustic amusement of edging each other off the
grassy border into the dust of the track that they did not perceive
his approach. Little shrieks, slight scufflings, and interjections of
"Cynthy! you limb!" "Quit that, Eunice, now!" and "I just call that