colding, that I think she is thoroughly
ashamed of herself.'

'You thought it was _that_ that kept me!' I cried. 'Oh, if I could tell
you!'

She smiled: she was my dear, friendly Diana again.

'You shall tell me all about it to-morrow,' she said. 'You will not
have another opportunity, because we are going to Aix on Friday. And
now, good-night. I am stopping the way, and the linkman is getting quite
excited over it.'

She passed on, and the carriage rolled away with her, and I was too
happy to mind very much--had she not forgiven me? Should we not meet
to-morrow? I should have two whole hours to declare myself in, and this
time I would dally with Fortune no longer.

How excited I was the following day: how fearful, when the morning broke
grey and lowering: how grateful, when the benignant sun shone out later,
and promised a brilliant afternoon: how carefully I dressed, and what a
price I paid for the flower for my buttonhole!

So we cantered on to the Row, as goodly a couple (if I may be pardoned
this retrospective vanity) as any there; and by and by, I saw, with the
quick eye of a lover, Diana's willowy form in the distance. She was not
alone, but I knew that the Colonel would soon have to yield his place to
me.

As soon as she saw me, she urged her mare to a trot, and came towards me
with the loveliest faint blush and dawning smile of welcome, when, all
at once, Brutus came to a dead stop, which nearly threw me on his neck,
and stood quivering in every limb.

'Do you see that?' he said hoarsely. 'And I was about to forgive her!'

I saw: my insinuation, baseless enough at the beginning, was now but too
well justified. Colonel Cockshott was on his raw-boned brown hunter, and
even my brief acquaintance with horses enabled me to see that Wild Rose
no longer regarded him with her former indifference.

Diana and the Colonel had reined up and seemed waiting for me--would
Brutus never move? 'Show your pride,' I said in an agonised whisper,
'Treat her with the contempt she deserves!'

'I will,' he said between his bit and clenched teeth.

And then Miss Gittens came bumping by on the grey, and, before I could
interfere, my Houyhnhnm was off like a shot in pursuit. I saw Diana's
sweet, surprised face: I heard the Colonel's jarring laugh as I passed,
and I--I could only bow in mortified appeal, and long for a gulf to leap
into like Curtius!

I don't know what I said to Miss Gittens. I believe I made myself
reckle