day,
Mrs. Duff."

He turned out of the shop, a scarlet spot of emotion on his cheek.
Thirty-two pounds owing to poor Mrs. Duff! Was it _thoughtlessness_ on
Sibylla's part? He strove to beat down the conviction that it was a less
excusable error.

But the Verner pride had been wounded to its very core.

CHAPTER LV.

SELF WILL.

Gathered before a target on the lawn, in their archery costume gleaming
with green and gold, was a fair group, shooting their arrows in the air.
Far more went into the air than struck the target. They were the
visitors of Verner's Pride; and Sibylla, the hostess, was the gayest,
the merriest, the fairest among them.

Lionel came on to the terrace, descended the steps, and crossed the lawn
to join them--as courtly, as apparently gay, as if that bill of Mrs.
Duff's was not making havoc of his heartstrings. They all ran to
surround him. It was not often they had so attractive a host to
surround; and attractive men are, and always will be, welcome to women.
A few minutes, a quarter of an hour given to them, an unruffled
smoothness on his brow, a smile upon his lips, and then he contrived to
draw his wife aside.

"Oh, Lionel, I forgot to tell you," she exclaimed. "Poynton has been
here. He knows of the most charming pair of gray ponies, he says. And
they can be ours if secured at once."

"I don't want gray ponies," replied Lionel.

"But I do," cried Sibylla. "You say I am too timid to drive. It is all
nonsense; I should soon get over the timidity. I _will_ learn to drive,
Lionel. Mrs. Jocelyn, come here," she called out.

Mrs. Jocelyn, a young and pretty woman, almost as pretty as Sibylla,
answered to the summons.

"Tell Mr. Verner what Poynton said about the ponies."

"Oh, you must not miss the opportunity," cried Mrs. Jocelyn to Lionel.
"They are perfectly beautiful, the man said. Very dear, of course; but
you know nobody looks at money when buying horses for a lady. Mrs.
Verner must have them. You might secure them to-day."

"I have no room in my stables for more horses," said Lionel, smiling at
Mrs. Jocelyn's eagerness.

"Yes, you have, Lionel," interposed his wife. "Or, if not, room must be
made. I have ordered the ponies to be brought."

"I shall send them back," said Lionel, laughing.

"Don't you wish your wife to take to driving, Mr. Verner? Don't you like
to see a lady drive? Some do not."

"I think there is no necessity for a lady to drive, while she has a
husb