one him?

With such questions did she plague herself, and finding them either
unanswerable, or answerable only by affirmatives, she had well-nigh
resolved upon leaving the inn, and making her way back to London to seek
out her aunt, when the door opened and her woman reappeared.

"Well?" cried Cynthia, seeing her alone. "Where is Sir Crispin?"

"Below, madam."

"Below?" echoed she. "And what, pray, doth he below?"

"He is at dice with a gentleman from London."

In the dim light of the October twilight the woman saw not the sudden
pallor of her mistress's cheeks, but she heard the gasp of pain that
was almost a cry. In her mortification, Cynthia could have wept had she
given way to her feelings. The man who had induced her to elope with him
sat at dice with a gentleman from London! Oh, it was monstrous! At the
thought of it she broke into a laugh that appalled her tiring-woman;
then mastering her hysteria, she took a sudden determination.

"Call me the host," she cried, and the frightened Catherine obeyed her
at a run.

When the landlord came, bearing lights, and bending his aged back
obsequiously:

"Have you a pillion?" she asked abruptly. "Well, fool, why do you stare?
Have you a pillion?"

"I have, madam."

"And a knave to ride with me, and a couple more as escort?"

"I might procure them, but--"

"How soon?"

"Within half an hour, but--"

"Then go see to it," she broke in, her foot beating the ground
impatiently.

"But, madam--"

"Go, go, go!" she cried, her voice rising at each utterance of that
imperative.

"But, madam," the host persisted despairingly, and speaking quickly so
that he might get the words out, "I have no horses fit to travel ten
miles."

"I need to go but five," she retorted quickly, her only thought being to
get the beasts, no matter what their condition. "Now, go, and come not
back until all is ready. Use dispatch and I will pay you well, and above
all, not a word to the gentleman who came hither with me."

The sorely-puzzled host withdrew to do her bidding, won to it by her
promise of good payment.

Alone she sat for half an hour, vainly fostering the hope that ere
the landlord returned to announce the conclusion of his preparations,
Crispin might have remembered her and come. But he did not appear, and
in her solitude this poor little maid was very miserable, and shed
some tears that had still more of anger than sorrow in their source. At
length the landlord came. S