you for a long while, and should enjoy it so much," said my lady,
detaining him.

"Mrs. Snowdon looks as if she needed air to revive her roses, and the
pony carriage is just the thing for her, so I will cheerfully resign my
seat to her," he answered laughing, as he forced himself from his
mother's hand.

"Take the girls in the clarence. We all want a breath of air, and you
are the best whip we know. Be gallant and say yes, dear."

"No, thank you, Tavie, that won't do. Rose and Blanche are both asleep,
and you are dying to go and do likewise, after your vigils last night.
As a man and a brother I beg you'll do so, and let me ride as I like."

"Suppose you ask Annon to join you--" began Treherne with well-assumed
indifference; but Sir Jasper frowned and turned sharply on him, saying,
half-petulantly, half-jocosely:

"Upon my life I should think I was a boy or a baby, by the manner in
which you mount guard over me today. If you think I'm going to live in
daily fear of some mishap, you are all much mistaken. Ghost or no ghost,
I shall make merry while I can; a short life and a jolly one has always
been my motto, you know, so fare you well till dinnertime."

They watched him gallop down the avenue, and then went their different
ways, still burdened with a nameless foreboding. Octavia strolled into
the conservatory, thinking to refresh herself with the balmy silence
which pervaded the place, but Annon soon joined her, full of a lover's
hopes and fears.