lashed our faces, the wind screamed past, the wheels seemed to
leave the ground alternately, and a light rushed up toward us from below,
while with my teeth hard set I wondered what would happen when we reached
the sharp bend at the bottom.

I got the Devil around it somehow, and then breathed easier, for the steep
slope of Starcross Brow rose close ahead, and I knew no horse was ever
foaled which could run away up that. So, trusting to one hand, I slipped
my arm round Grace's waist, and, thrilled at the touch of her damp hair on
my neck, "I'll hold you safe; we are near the end, and the danger will
soon be past," I said.

It turned out so, for though Robert the Devil charged the hill gallantly,
Starcross Brow proved too much for him, and, with a sigh of relief, Grace
drew herself away. "I must thank you, Mr. Lorimer. You drive well," she
said.

Then I thought that if she had been like Minnie, or even cousin Alice, I
might have ventured to replace the protecting arm, but there was something
about Grace Carrington that made one treat her, as it were, with
reverence. When we drew up in front of Starcross House a carriage with
flashing lamps stood in the drive; I had seen those lights coming down the
opposite side of the valley. After Grace had thanked me with a quiet
friendliness as I helped her down, a group turned to meet us at the door.
The first was a tall, thin-faced man of commanding presence with a long
gray moustache, and he stared hard at me with a haughtiness that I fancied
was tinctured with contempt, while Captain Ormond stood behind him,
smiling languidly and lifted a warning finger unobserved to Grace. There
was something forbidding about Colonel Carrington, and to the last few men
liked him. I remember Harry Lorraine once comparing him to
Coriolanus--"Steeped in pride to the backbone," said Harry, "but it's a
clean pride, and there's a good deal of backbone about him."

"I am glad to see you safe, Grace," he commenced. "We were rather anxious
about you. But where have you been, and how did we pass you?"

I never saw Grace either confused or taken by surprise, and when she
explained quietly her father looked down at me from the top step as he
said, "I thank you, sir, but I did not catch the name. May I ask who it is
to whom we are so much indebted? Neither do I quite understand yet how we
got here before you."

There was nothing in the words, but the glance and tone conveyed the idea
that he regretted