verie;
the other carriages were far, far ahead, and theirs, which, having been
detained, was the last, trundled on slowly over a bad road. At length
Laura stirred, and exclaimed,--

"Did you ever hear such divine music, Eloise? Why didn't Mrs. Arles
come, do you know, Mr. Marlboro'?"

"Does Mrs. Arles go into such general society?" replied Mr. Marlboro'.

"Can't say. How long she wore black! so long that it has really become
quite gray! Has she been husbanding her charms, or is she husbanding
them now? Don't you shake your fan at me, Eloise Changarnier, or I shall
tell how you said it yourself this very noon!"

The carriage-top had been thrown open, and at the moment of these words
Miss Changarnier saw Mr. St. George, from his seat on the box beside the
coachman, hastily start and turn, but whether on account of Mrs. Arles,
or at something in the road, she could not discern; for Marlboro's horse
having very singularly fallen lame in the stables that night, she had
heard Mr. St. George muttering something about foul play, as he offered
the other a seat, and she felt that he entertained apprehensions. Had
she seen Marlboro's arm raised quiveringly, while the lash of the
riding-whip fell across the groom's face in a welt, as he dismissed him,
she might have felt also a womanly fear that the apprehensions were not
groundless. For Marlboro', unable to get speech with Eloise one moment
apart from others that day, had fled home in a fury, and had thus, when
his anger cooled, been obliged to ride alone to the place of merry
rendezvous.

Gradually, now, as they jogged along, Mrs. Murray began nodding here and
there about the carriage, dropping her head very much as if she meant to
drop it for good and all; one by one the others forgot themselves; but
Eloise could see Marlboro' in the opposite corner sitting alert and pale
and sparkling-eyed, and felt that Mr. St. George was watching every
brier on the road-side, beneath his slouching brim. At length the
carriage stopped with a jerk just as they reached the little log-bridge
that crossed the creek, and Mr. St. George appeared at the door.

"You must all alight a moment," he said. "Here is a break-down;--and,
moreover, a log of the bridge has been displaced,"--the last in an aside
to Marlboro'.

It took but a few moments to repair the road, and to tie up the broken
springs of the coach as they could; but, after a trial, it was found
impossible for all to ride.

"I will w