d down twice and had to be
done over again. Afraid! She was afraid, as every girl worth winning is,
of the sight of her lover!

Yet when she heard hoofbeats on the driveway could have kept her from
peeping out. The rear porch, from which the riding party would start,
was just below her window, the great pillars rising past her. She had
closed one of her blinds an hour before; she now made use of its
sheltering interstices. She saw Richard on a splendid black horse coming
up the drive, looking, as she had foreseen he would look, at home in the
saddle and at his best. She saw the colour in his cheeks, the brightness
in his eyes, caught his one quick glance upward--did he know her window?
He could not possibly see her, but she drew back, happiness and fear
fighting within her for the ascendency. Could she ever go down and face
him out there in the strong June light, where he could see every curving
hair of eyelash? note the slightest ebb and flow of blood in cheek?

Rosamond was calling: "Come, Rob! Mr. Kendrick is here and Joe is
bringing round the horses. Can I help you?"

Roberta opened her door. "I couldn't do my hair at all; does it look a
fright under this hat?"

Rosamond surveyed her. "Of course it doesn't. You're the most bewitching
thing I ever saw in that blue habit, and your hair is lovely, as it
always is. Rob, I have grown stout; I had to let out two bands before I
could get this on; it was made before I was married. Steve's been
laughing at me. Here he is; now do let's hurry. I want every bit of this
good time, don't you?"

There was no delaying longer. Rosamond, all eagerness, was leading the
way downstairs, her little riding-boots tapping her departure. Stephen
was waiting for Roberta; she had to precede him. The next she knew she
was down and out upon the porch, and Richard Kendrick, hat and crop in
hand, was meeting her halfway, his expectant eyes upon her face. One
glance at him was all she was giving him, and he was mercifully making
no sign that any one looking on could have recognized beyond his eager
scrutiny as his hand clasped hers. And then in two minutes they were
off, and Roberta, feeling the saddle beneath her and Colonel's familiar
tug on the bit at the start-off--he was always impatient to get
away--was realizing that the worst, at least for the present, was over.

"Which way?" called Stephen, who was leading with Rosamond.

"Out the road past the West Wood marshes, please--straight ou