. Try and thank her for me.
Lady Kingsland, Miss Silver."

Surely some subtle power of fascination invested this dark daughter of
the earth. The liquid dark eyes lifted themselves in mute appeal to
the great lady's face, and then the proudest woman in England opened
her arms with a sudden impulse and took the outcast to her bosom.

"I can never thank you," she murmured. "The service you have rendered
me is beyond all words."

An hour later Sybilla went slowly back to her room. She had
breakfasted _tete-a-tete_ with my lady and her daughter, while Sir
Everard, in scarlet coat and cord and tops, had mounted his bonny bay
and ridden off to Lady Louise and the fox-hunt, and to his fate, though
he knew it not.

"Really, Mildred," my lady said, "a most delightful young person,
truly. Do you know, if she does not succeed in finding her friends I
should like to retain her as a companion?"

In her own room Sybilla Silver stood before the glass, and she smiled
back at her own image.

"So, my lady," she said, "you walk into the trap with your eyes open,
too--you who are old enough to know better? My handsome face and black
eyes and smooth tongue stand me in their usual good stead. And I saved
Sir Everard Kingsland's life! Poor fools! A thousand times better for
you all if I had let that midnight assassin shoot him down like a dog!"

CHAPTER X.

A SHAFT FROM CUPID'S QUIVER.

It was fully ten o'clock, and the hunting-party were ready to start,
when Sir Everard Kingsland joined them, looking handsome and happy as a
young prince in his very becoming hunting costume.

Of course the young baronet's first look was for Lady Louise--he
scarcely glanced at the rest. She was just being assisted into the
saddle by the devoted George Grosvenor, but she turned to Sir Everard
and graciously held out her gauntleted hand.

"Once more," she said, "almost late. Laggard! I shall quarrel with
you one of these days if you do not learn to be more punctual."

"You will never have to reproach me again," he said. "Had I known you
would have honored my absence by a thought, you should not have had to
reproach me now."

"Very pretty, indeed, Sir Everard. But don't waste your time paying
compliments this morning. Thanks, Mr. Grosvenor; that will do. For
whom are you looking, Sir Everard? Lady Carteret? Oh, she is going to
see as much of the fun as she can from the carriage, with some other
ladies. Miss Hunsden and mys