much surprised--not so much at the information as at her
manner of imparting it--that he pulled up short. Seeing him stop, she
stopped also.

"Are you very much astonished?" she asked, pushing the gray veil up to
her hat, and looking at him smilingly out of her deep, dark eyes. The
Duke spoke no word, but leapt from his horse, which he left standing in
the middle of the path, surprised into docility by the sudden desertion.
There were a few wild-flowers growing by the road, which here led
through a wooded glade of the Park; they were the flowers called
Michaelmas daisies, which bloom until November in America. He picked a
great handful of them, and came running back.

"Let me be the first to congratulate you, my dear friend," he said,
standing bareheaded at her stirrup, and offering the flowers with a
half-bashful smile that sat strangely on a man of his years. It was a
quick, impulsive action, such as no one could have expected from him who
did not know him intimately well--and few could boast that they did.
Margaret was touched by his look and manner.

"Thanks," she said, bending over her saddle-bow, and taking the daisies
as he held them up to her. "Yes, you are the first--to congratulate me,"
which was true. He still stood looking at her, and his hand would
hardly let go the flowers where his fingers touched hers. His face grew
pale, then ashy-white and he steadied himself against her horse's neck.

"What is the matter? are you ill? have you hurt yourself?" asked
Margaret in real alarm, for he looked as though he were going to faint,
and it was a full minute since he had come back to her from the
roadside. Then he made a great effort and collected himself, and the
next instant he had dashed after his horse, which was wandering away
towards the trees.

"I did feel queer for a minute," he said when he was once more in the
saddle and by her side. "I dare say it is the heat. It's a very hot day,
now I think of it. Would you allow me a cigarette? I hate to smoke in
public, you know, but it will make me all right again." Margaret
assented, of course, to the request; it was morning, in the recesses of
the Park, and nobody would see. But she looked strangely at him for a
minute, wondering what could have produced his sudden dizziness.

They rode more slowly towards the entrance of the Park, and the
Countess's thoughts did not wander again. She talked to her companion on
every subject he broached, showing interest in a