atters to her satisfaction, if
by good fortune she should find her lover at the gate.

Tom rode so far behind his mistress that she could not determine who was
following her. Whenever she brought Dolcy to a walk, Tom-Tom also walked
his horse. When Dorothy galloped, he galloped; but after Dorothy had
crossed the Wye and had taken the wall over into the Devonshire lands, Tom
also crossed the river and wall and quickly rode to her side. He uncovered
and bowed low with a familiarity of manner that startled her. The act of
riding up to her and the manner in which he took his place by her side
were presumptuous to the point of insolence, and his attitude, although
not openly offensive, was slightly alarming. She put Dolcy to a gallop;
but the servant who, she thought, was presuming on her former
graciousness, kept close at Dolcy's heels. The man was a stranger, and she
knew nothing of his character. She was alone in the forest with him, and
she did not know to what length his absurd passion for her might lead him.
She was alarmed, but she despised cowardice, although she knew herself to
be a coward, and she determined to ride to the gate, which was but a short
distance ahead of her. She resolved that if the insolent fellow continued
his familiarity, she would teach him a lesson he would never forget. When
she was within a short distance of the gate she sprang from Dolcy and
handed her rein to her servant. John was not there, but she went to the
gate in the hope that a letter might be hidden beneath the stone bench
where Jennie was wont to find them in times past. Dorothy found no letter,
but she could not resist the temptation to sit down upon the bench where
he and she had sat, and to dream over the happy moments she had spent
there. Tom, instead of holding the horses, hitched them, and walked toward
Dorothy. That act on the part of her servant was effrontery of the most
insolent sort. Will Dawson himself would not have dared do such a thing.
It filled her with alarm, and as Tom approached she was trying to
determine in what manner she would crush him. But when the audacious
Thomas, having reached the gate, seated himself beside his mistress on the
stone bench, the girl sprang to her feet in fright and indignation. She
began to realize the extent of her foolhardiness in going to that secluded
spot with a stranger.

"How dare you approach me in this insolent fashion?" cried Dorothy,
breathless with fear.

"Mistress Vernon,