from the barn, and suffered himself
to be made captive. Diana got the halter on, and, flushed and excited
with the chase, led him back over the lot and out to the road, where
Josiah had very culpably left the little waggon standing in the shade
of the elm, close by the lean-to gate. Just as she got there, Diana saw
a stranger who had his hand on the gate, but who left it now and came
forward to speak to her.

Diana stood by the thills of the waggon, horse in hand, but, to tell
the truth, forgetting both. The stranger was unlike anything often seen
in Pleasant Valley. He wore the dark-blue uniform of an army officer;
there was a stripe of gold down the seam of his pantaloons and a gold
bar across his shoulders, and his cap was a soldier's cap. But it was
not on his head just now; it had come off since he quitted the gate;
and the step with which he drew near was the very contrast to Joe
Bartlett's lounging pace; this was measured, clean, compact, and firm,
withal as light and even as that of an antelope. His hair showed the
regulation cut; and Diana saw with the same glance a pair of light,
brilliant, hazel eyes and a finely trimmed mustache. _She_ stood
flushed and still, halter in hand, with her sun-bonnet pushed a little
back for air. The stranger smiled just a little.

"May I ask how far I am from a place called Elmfield?"

"It is"--Diana's thoughts wandered,--"It is five miles."

"I ought not to need to ask--but I have been so long away.--Do you know
how or where I can get a horse, or any conveyance, to bring me there? I
have ridden beyond this, and met with an accident."

Diana hesitated. "Is it Lieut. Knowlton?" she said.

"Ah, you know me?" said he. "I forgot that Pleasant Valley knows me
better than I know Pleasant Valley. I did not count on finding a friend
here." His eye glanced at the little brown house.

"Everybody knows Elmfield," said Diana; "and I guessed--"

"From my dress?" said Mr. Knowlton, following the direction of her
look. "This was accident too. But which of my friends ought I to know
here, that I don't know? Pardon me,--but is this horse to be put to the
waggon or taken away from it?"

"O, I was going to put him in."

"Allow me"--said the young man, taking the halter from Diana's willing
hands; "but where is the harnessing gear?"

"O, that is in the barn!" exclaimed Diana. "I will go and fetch it."

"Pray no! Let me get it," said her companion; and giving the end of the
halter a tu