. "But your father has to
be faced some time, and I--Ida, I am impatient. I want you. Now, as I
daresay you have discovered, I am rather an idiot than otherwise, and
the worst man in the world to carry out anything diplomatically; but my
father--" He laughed rather ruefully. "Well, they say he can coax a
concession out of even the Sultan of Turkey; that there is no one who
can resist him; and I know I shall be doing the right thing by telling
him how we stand."

She leant her elbows on her knees and her chin in the palms of her
hands.

"It shall be as you say, my lord and master," she said; "and when you
tell him that you have been so foolish as to fall in love with a little
Miss Nobody, who lives in a ruined tumble-down house, and is as poor
and friendless as a church mouse, do you think he will be
delighted--that the great and all-powerful Sir Stephen Orme will throw
up his hat for joy and consider that you have been very wise?"

"I think when he sees you--What is that?" he broke off.

"That" was a lady riding across the moor behind them. She was mounted
on one of the Orme horses, was habited by Redfern, who had done justice
to her superb and supple figure, and the sunlight which poured from
between the clouds fully revealed the statuesque beauty of her face.

"I know," said Ida, quietly, as she looked at the graceful horsewoman,
at the lithe, full figure, the cold perfection of the Grecian face.
"That is Miss Falconer: it is, is it not?"

He nodded indifferently.

"And she has seen us," said Ida.

"It doesn't matter in the least," said Stafford. "Why shouldn't she?
But I don't think she has; she did not turn her head as she rode by."

"That is why," said Ida, with her woman's acuteness. "She saw us from
the top of the hill--see, the groom is just riding down."

She was silent a moment or two, watching Maude Falconer as she cantered
away, then she shivered as if with cold.

"What is the matter, dearest?" he asked, drawing her to him. "Why did
you shudder?"

She tried to laugh, but her eyes were grave and almost solemn. "I don't
know. It was as if someone had walked over my grave; as if I felt the
presentiment of some coming evil. I never felt like it before--Yes: she
is very beautiful, Stafford. She is like a picture, a statue--no, that
is not fair; for no picture had ever such magnificent hair, no statue
was ever so full of life and--Oh, I want a word--power. Yes; she is
like a tigress--a tigress aslee