How different from Lady Louise! And
yet! good heavens! how royally beautiful she is!"

"Alone, Kingsland?" exclaimed a voice at his elbow; and glancing around
he saw Lord Carteret. "What do you think of our pretty Di Vernon? You
don't often see a lady ride like that. Why don't you pay your
respects? Don't know her, eh? Come alone; I'll present you."

Sir Everard's heart gave a sudden plunge, quite unaccountably. Without
a word he rode up to where the gray-eyed enchantress held her magic
circle.

"Harrie, my dear," said the elderly nobleman, "I bring a worshiper who
hovers aloof and gazes in speechless admiration. Let me present my
young friend, Sir Everard Kingsland, Miss Hunsden."

Sir Everard took off his hat, and bent to his saddle-bow.

"Sir Everard Kingsland!" cried Captain Hunsden, cordially. "Son of my
old friend, Sir Jasper, I'll be sworn! My dear boy, how are you? I
knew your father well. We were at Rugby together, and sworn
companions. Harrie, this is the son of my oldest friend."

"Papa's friends are all mine!"

The voice was clear and sweet as the beaming eyes. She held out her
hand with a frank grace, and Sir Everard took it, its light touch
thrilling to the core of his heart.

Sir Everard Kingsland rode back to Carteret Park beside the Indian
officer and his daughter as a man might ride in a trance. Surely
within an hour the whole world had been changed! He rode on air
instead of solid soil, and the sunshine of heaven was not half so
brilliant as Harriet Hunsden's smile.

"Confess now, Sir Everard," she said, "you were shocked and
scandalized. I saw it in your face. Oh, don't deny it, and don't tell
polite fibs! I always shock people, and rather enjoy it than
otherwise."

"Harriet!" her father said, reprovingly. "She is a spoiled madcap, Sir
Everard, and I am afraid the fault is mine. She has been everywhere
with me in her seventeen years of life--freezing amid the snows of
Canada and grilling alive under the broiling sun of India. And the
result is--what you see."

"The result is--perfection!"

"Papa," Miss Hunsden said, turning her sparkling face to her father,
"for Sir Everard's sake, pray change the subject. If you talk of me,
he will feel in duty bound to pay compliments; and really, after such a
fast run, it is too much to expect of any man. There! I see Lady
Louise across the brook yonder. I will leave you gentlemen to
cultivate one another. _Allons, mess