eave me no excuse, he has sent his servant Mithridates on
horseback, with another led horse and side-saddle, to take me to Lytton
Lodge."

"Oh, dear! But you need not go, I hope?" said Emma, looking up, with a
sigh.

"I must go," answered Laura, with another sigh. "And really I ought to
be glad to go to see such kind friends as all my relatives there have
been to me. But, you see, Emma, I don't like to leave you for a single
day even before I have to return to school."

"Then why do you go at all? Why can you not send an excuse?"

"Dear Emma, would _you_ refuse to go if you were in my place?" inquired
Laura.

Emma Cavendish could not reply.

"No, you would not," added Laura, "because it would not be right to
refuse."

"But, my dear, to perform so long a journey on horseback! It must be
over twenty miles. Let me see--it is about nine miles from here to
Wendover, and it must be ten or eleven from Wendover to Lytton Lodge,"
said Emma.

"No; only about eight or nine. The whole distance is not more than
seventeen or eighteen miles by the roundabout route. And if I could go
as the crow flies it is not more than six miles. Why, you know the
eastern extremity of your land touches the western extremity of
uncle's."

"So it does. And if, as you say, you could go as the crow flies--that
is, straight over mountains and rivers--you could get there in two
hours. As it is, it will take you five or six hours, and that is too
long for a girl to be in the saddle, especially a city-bred girl,
unaccustomed to such exercise."

"I think I can stand it," smiled Laura.

"But you shall not try. If you will go you must take the little
carriage. When do you propose to start?"

"To-morrow morning."

"Well, we will send the redoubtable Mithridates back with his steeds,
and send you on your journey in the little carriage, under the
guardianship of old Jerome, with orders to remain with you during your
visit; but to bring you back again, at farthest, on the third day," said
Emma, peremptorily.

Laura thanked her friend, but protested against any trouble being taken
on her account.

But Miss Cavendish was firm, and the arrangement was made according to
her plan.

In the meantime Mithridates, eating beef and bread and drinking
home-made sweet cider in the kitchen, recovered some of his composure;
though still, with his mouth full of meat and his eyes starting from his
head, he persisted that he had seen the spirit of his young m