d so little business:
oceans of gossip, flirting, swagger, and spite to every ounce of
reality. Moreover, her refined and Puritan spirit revolted against the
people who hunted: she thought of them all as bubbles, brilliant
apparently, but liable to burst at any moment and leave nothing behind
them but a taint of vulgarity.

When hounds were running people saw little of Silver and the girl, who
were always well behind.

"Carrying on together," was the spiteful comment of those whom Boy was
wont to call in scorn "the ladies."

But it was not true. The pair were not coffee-housing. Boy was at her
job, schooling her youngsters with incomparable patience, judgment, and
decision; and Jim Silver, on those great fretting weight-carriers of
his, was marking time and in attendance.

The Duke, when he got the pair alone, never tired of chaffing them.

"I notice she always gives you the lead, Silver," he mocked.

"Yes, sir," replied the young man. "She makes the hole, and I creep
through it afterward."

The couple were talked about, of course; and both were dimly aware of
it. Boy was used to being made the subject of gossip; and Silver was
almost as unconscious of and aloof from it as were the horses that he
rode.

The ladies, to whom he paid no attention, were indignant and resentful.

"It can't be," they said; and--"I hate to see that chit making a fool of
a nice man like that."

The Duke, whose ears were growing longer every day, heard them once and
began to bellow suddenly in that disconcerting way of his.

"It's all right!" he shouted. "You needn't be afraid. She won't have
him."

The ladies jeered secretly. To their minds the question was not whether
the girl would have Silver, but whether he would be Mug enough to give
her the chance.

Certainly the pair were drawing close.

Days together in the saddle, the risks and small adventures of the
field, and by no means least those long hacks home at evening, not
seldom in the dark, over the Downs, a great wind blowing gustily under
clear stars, did their sure, unconscious work.

Up to Christmas the young man visited Putnam's regularly. Then he missed
two successive week-ends. When he came again there was a cloud over him.
It was so faint and far that nobody noticed it indeed but the girl. She
was not deceived.

As they rode home in the afternoon he was more silent than his wont.
Once or twice her eyes sought his. His brows were level and drawn down.
There was