saw it, a lovely lady's horse--eating its head off in the stable. Won't
you let me run back and order it; and won't you, please, come out with
me for a good, long gallop?"

He meant what he said. He had spoken quickly, impulsively, but with the
perfect understanding in his own mind that his proposition meant the
complete abandonment of his rendezvous with Susy. Mrs. Peyton was
astounded and slightly stirred with his earnestness, albeit unaware of
all it implied.

"It's a great temptation, Mr. Brant," she said, with a playful smile,
which dazzled Clarence with its first faint suggestion of a refined
woman's coquetry; "but I'm afraid that Mr. Peyton would think me going
mad in my old age. No. Go on and enjoy your gallop, and if you should
see those giddy girls anywhere, send them home early for chocolate,
before the cold wind gets up."

She turned, waved her slim white hand playfully in acknowledgment of
Clarence's bared head, and moved away.

For the first few moments the young man tried to find relief in furious
riding, and in bullying his spirited horse. Then he pulled quickly up.
What was he doing? What was he going to do? What foolish, vapid deceit
was this that he was going to practice upon that noble, queenly,
confiding, generous woman? (He had already forgotten that she had always
distrusted him.) What a fool he was not to tell her half-jokingly that
he expected to meet Susy! But would he have dared to talk half-jokingly
to such a woman on such a topic? And would it have been honorable
without disclosing the WHOLE truth,--that they had met secretly before?
And was it fair to Susy?--dear, innocent, childish Susy! Yet something
must be done! It was such trivial, purposeless deceit, after all; for
this noble woman, Mrs. Peyton, so kind, so gentle, would never object
to his loving Susy and marrying her. And they would all live happily
together; and Mrs. Peyton would never be separated from them, but always
beaming tenderly upon them as she did just now in the garden. Yes, he
would have a serious understanding with Susy, and that would excuse the
clandestine meeting to-day.

His rapid pace, meantime, had brought him to the imperceptible incline
of the terrace, and he was astonished, in turning in the saddle, to find
that the casa, corral, and outbuildings had completely vanished, and
that behind him rolled only the long sea of grain, which seemed to have
swallowed them in its yellowing depths. Before him lay the w