protect a poor woman, whatever she is. He'd have had
it before, only Lord Ormont shuns a scandal. I was telling you, my Olmer
doctor forbade horse-riding, and my husband raised a noise like one of
my turkeycocks on the wing; so I 've given up the saddle, to quiet him.
I guessed. I went yesterday morning to my London physician. He sounded
me, pushed out his mouth and pulled down his nose, recommended avoidance
of excitement. "Is it heart?" I said. He said it was heart. That was
the best thing an old woman could hear. He said, when he saw I wasn't
afraid, it was likely to be quick; no doctors, no nurses and daily
bulletins for inquirers, but just the whites of the eyes, the
laying-out, the undertaker, and the family-vault. That's one reason why
I want to see Steignton before the blow that may fall any day, whether
my brother Rowsley's there or no. But that Olmer doctor of mine,
Causitt, Peter Causitt, shall pay me for being a liar or else an
ignoramus when I told him he was to tell me bluntly the nature of my
disease.'

A horseman, in whom they recognized Mr. Morsfield, passed, clattering on
the road behind them.

'Some woman here about,' Lady Charlotte muttered. Weyburn saw him joined
by a cavalier, and the two consulted and pointed whips right and left.

CHAPTER XVII. LADY CHARLOTTE'S TRIUMPH

One of the days of sovereign splendour in England was riding down the
heavens, and drawing the royal mantle of the gold-fringed shadows
over plain and wavy turf, blue water and woods of the country round
Steignton. A white mansion shone to a length of oblong lake that held
the sun-ball suffused in mild yellow.

'There's the place,' Lady Charlotte said to Weyburn, as they had view
of it at a turn of the park. She said to herself--where I was born and
bred! and her sight gloated momentarily on the house and side avenues, a
great plane standing to the right of the house, the sparkle of a little
river running near; all the scenes she knew, all young and lively.
She sprang on her seat for a horse beneath her, and said, 'But this
is healthy excitement,' as in reply to her London physician's
remonstrances. 'And there's my brother Rowsley, talking to one of the
keepers,' she cried. 'You see Lord Ormont? I can see a mile. Sight
doesn't fail with me. He 's insisting. 'Ware poachers when Rowsley's on
his ground! You smell the air here? Nobody dies round about Steignton.
Their legs wear out and they lie down to rest them. It 's th