d ignored each other's presence more persistently than
before.

A quarter of an hour passed in a desultory and broken conversation, in
which each member of the party seemed to continue his or her own train
of thought, with little or no attention to the preceding remarks. As,
for example:

Guy Seton: "It's such a ripping day. I thought I could ride over and
see how you all were."

Maud: "Mr Morris dropped his spectacles in the stable when he was
feeding his new mare. He heard something grind, so he thought she had
eaten them by mistake. He sent off for a vet., and he gave her things
and charged a guinea, and all the while they were on the dressing-table
in his room."

Dreda: "I'm always losing things! There's been a perfect fate against
me at school this term. It's not my fault, for I have grown hideously
careful, and they all turn up again in time, but it's most wearing for
your nerves!"

Mrs Saxon: "I met your mother in the village on Thursday, Mr Seton. I
was glad to see her looking so well."

Guy Seton: "This brisk weather braces people up. There's a meet at
Newstead Market Square on Monday at eleven. Ought to be a good run."

Maud: "Mr Morris's mare cost eighty pounds. Their coachman told our
gardener. He said he thought she was gone for sure when the eyeglasses
were missing. They've got a gold rim."

Dreda: "People always lose glasses. Flora Mason wears them at school.
She draws most beautifully. She had caricatures of all the mistresses
inside an atlas. She put them on the back of Balkan States because no
one ever looks at them; but there was an earthquake or something, and
The Duck turned them up. As a punishment, she made Flora stand up
before all the class and draw a copy of her portrait on the board.
Flora kept trying to make it pretty, and she said:--

"`Look at your copy, please, Flora; the nose goes to a point, and is
_inches_ larger!' Flora was _purple_ with embarrassment, and so were we
all."

Guy Seton: "I was wondering if you would care to follow with us on
Monday, Miss Saxon? We'd take good care of you. My cousin is a very
careful rider, and you need not be at all nervous of being led into
awkward places. We could turn back as soon as you were tired."

Dreda's gasp of dismay sounded clearly through the room, but Guy Seton
was apparently deaf to the sound. Rowena had raised her head from her
embroidery, revealing a face of almost startling beauty--cheeks as pink
as a