way
under me, and came down with a slightly-sprained ankle, and the black
retriever, an animal of exceedingly noisome breath, affectionately
licking my face.

"Down, Juno!--I beg your pardon a million times; get down, you bitch!
How shall I ever apologize? Confound you, get down," said an agitated
voice above me; and looking up I espied the red-haired stranger of the
railway, dressed in a most conspicuous shooting-costume, white hat and
all, whose dogs had been the means of bringing me thus suddenly to the
earth, and on whom I was now dependent for succour and support till I
should be able to reach home.

In such an emergency my new friend was not half so confused and shy as
I should have expected. He seemed to summon all his energies to
consider what was best to be done; and as my foot pained me
considerably when I tried to walk (particularly down hill), he made no
more ado, but lifted me carefully in his arms, and proceeded
incontinently to carry me off in the direction of Dangerfield Hall,
where he seemed intuitively to know I was at present residing.

It was, to say the least of it, an unusual situation. A man I had
never seen but once before in my life--and here was I lying in his
arms (precious weight he must have found me!) and looking up in his
face like a child in its nurse's, and the usages of society making it
incumbent on us both to attempt a sort of indifferent conversation
about the weather and the country and the beauty of the scenery, which
the juxtaposition of our respective faces rendered ludicrous in the
extreme.

"A tempting day for a walk, Miss--ah--ah" (he didn't know my name--how
should he?--and was now beginning to get very red, partly from the
return of his constitutional shyness and partly from the severity of
his exertions). "I hope your foot does not pain you quite so much; be
good enough to lean a little more this way." Poor man, how his arms
must have ached! Whilst I replied somewhat in this fashion, "Thank
you, I'm better; I shall soon be able to walk, I think; this is indeed
a lovely country. Don't you find me very heavy?" "I think I could
carry you a good many miles," he said quietly; and then seemed so
shocked at such an avowal that he hardly opened his lips again, and
put me down the very first time I asked him, and offered me his arm
with an accession of confusion that made me feel quite awkward myself.
Truth to tell, my ankle was not sprained, only _twisted_; and when the
immed