ards him. She had been a brilliant and daring horsewoman in her youth
and middle age.

"I never thought I should live to amble along like this," she confided
to Mary as they drove between golden harvest fields. "Rheumatic gout is
a great humbler of the spirit. Ah! here comes one of those black
monsters to make the pair curvet a little. They are too fat, Mary. They
have too easy a life. It is only on such an occasion as this that they
remember their hot youth."

They reached the Court without mishap, although once or twice the horses
behaved as though they meditated a mild runaway.

"You shall take the other road home, Jennings," Lady Anne said
graciously, as she alighted in front of the great square, imposing
house, amid its flower-beds of all shapes, its ornamental fountains
flinging high jets of golden water in the sun.

"It's time we gave up the horses, my lady," Jennings said, with
bitterness, "with the likes o' them black beasts on the road."

Later, as she and Mary waited in the great drawing-room for Lady
Drummond, she returned to the subject of Jennings and his grievance.

"He is always bad-tempered when we come to the Court," she said. "For
all its grandeur it is not a hospitable house. Jennings will have to go
without his tea this afternoon."

Mary looked with wonder down the great length of the magnificent room.
Her feet sank in the Turkey carpet. The walls, which were papered in
deep red, were lined with full-length portraits, some of them
equestrian. The place had an air of rich comfort. Was it possible that
the mistress of so much magnificence could grudge a visitor's coachman
his tea?

"Her ladyship looks after the bawbees," Lady Anne went on, thinking
aloud as usual, rather than talking to Mary. "And those who are in her
employment must think of them too, or they go. Ah! you are looking at
Gerald Drummond's portrait. What do you think of it, child?"

It was one of the equestrian portraits. The subject, a man in the
thirties, dressed in a lancer uniform, stood by his horse's head. His
helmet was off, lying on the ground at his feet; and it was easy to see
why the artist had chosen to paint the sitter with his head uncovered.
The upper part of the face--the forehead and eyes--was strikingly
handsome. The sweep of golden hair, despite its close military cut, was
beautiful also. For the rest, the nose was too large and not
particularly well-shaped, the chin was rugged, the mouth stern.
Lantern-jaw