nd
oh, _such_ a hubbub as there was! and we couldn't go on fast, and
Dowdy seemed really frightened."

"Dowdy?" repeated Mrs. Willoughby, in an interrogative tone.

"Oh, that's a name I've just invented for Lady Dalrymple. It's better
than Rymple. She said so. It's Dowager shortened. She's a dowager, you
know. And so, you know, I was on the front seat all the time, when all
at once I saw a gentleman on horseback. He was a great big man--oh,
_so_ handsome!--and he was looking at poor little me as though he
would eat me up. And the moment I saw him I was frightened out of my
poor little wits, for I knew he was coming to save my life."

"You poor little puss! what put such an idea as that into your
ridiculous little head?"

"Oh, I knew it--second-sight, you know. We've got Scotch blood, Kitty
darling, you know. So, you know, I sat, and I saw that he was
pretending not to see me, and not to be following us; but all the time
he was taking good care to keep behind us, when he could easily have
passed us, and all to get a good look at poor me, you know.

"Well," continued Minnie, drawing a long breath, "you know I was
awfully frightened; and so I sat looking at him, and I whispered all
the time to myself: 'Oh, please don't!--ple-e-e-e-e-ease don't! Don't
come and save my life! Ple-e-e-e-e-ease let me alone! I don't want to
be saved at all.' I said this, you know, all to myself, and the more I
said it the more he seemed to fix his eyes on me."

"It was very, very rude in him, _I_ think," said Mrs. Willoughby, with
some indignation.

"No, it wasn't," said Minnie, sharply. "He wasn't rude at all. He
tried not to look at me. He pretended to be looking at the sea, and at
the pigs, and all that sort of thing, you know; but all the time, you
know, I knew very well that he saw me out of the corner of his
eye--this way."

And Minnie half turned her head, and threw upon her sister, out of the
corner of her eyes, a glance so languishing that the other laughed.

"He didn't look at you that way. I hope?"

"There was nothing to laugh at in it at all," said Minnie. "He had an
awfully solemn look--it was so earnest, so sad, and so dreadful, that
I really began to feel quite frightened. And so would _you_; wouldn't
_you_, now, Kitty darling; now _wouldn't_ you? Please say so."

"Oh yes!"

"Of course you would. Well, this person followed us. I could see him
very easily, though he tried to avoid notice; and so at last we got to
t