"Bravo!" he said, with a throb of pleasure. "And take me for a teacher!"

"Do you really mean it?"

"Entirely." They strolled on, arranging times and seasons, Constance
throwing herself into the scheme with a joyous and childlike zest.

"Mind you--I shall make you work!" he said firmly.

"Rather! May Nora come too?--if she wishes? I like Nora!"

"Does that mean--"

"Only that Alice doesn't like me!" she said with a frank smile. "But I
agree--my uncle is a dear."

"And I hear you are going to ride?"

"Yes. Mr. Falloden has found me a horse and groom."

"When did you come to know Mr. Falloden? I don't remember anybody of
that name at the Barberini."

She explained carelessly.

"You are going out alone?"

"In general. Sometimes, no doubt, I shall find a friend. I must
ride!"--she shook her shoulders impatiently--"else I shall suffocate in
this place. It's beautiful--Oxford!--but I don't understand it--it's not
my friend yet. You remember that mare of mine in Rome--Angelica! I want
a good gallop--God and the grass!"

She laughed and stretched her long and slender arms, clasping her hands
above her head. He realised in her, with a disagreeable surprise, the
note that was so unlike her mother--the note of recklessness, of
vehement will. It was really ill-luck that some one else than Douglas
Falloden could not have been found to look after her riding.

* * * * *

"I suppose you will be 'doing' the Eights all next week?" said Herbert
Pryce to the eldest Miss Hooper.

Alice coldly replied that she supposed it was necessary to take Connie
to all the festivities.

"What!--such a _blase_ young woman! She seems to have been everywhere
and seen everything already. She will be able to give you and Miss Nora
all sorts of hints," said the mathematical tutor, with a touch of that
patronage which was rarely absent from his manner to Alice Hooper. He
was well aware of her interest in him, and flattered by it; but, to do
him justice, he had not gone out of his way to encourage it. She had
been all very well, with her pretty little French face, before this
striking creature, her cousin, appeared on the scene. And now of course
she was jealous--that was inevitable. But it was well girls should learn
to measure themselves against others--should find their proper place.

All the same, he was quite fond of her, the small kittenish thing. An
old friend of his, and of the Hoopers, had once desc