e up for lost
time by putting on extra speed to catch up with their friends; and the
interest in the pursuit of the fox was of so perfunctory a nature that
it often seemed more by chance than by design that they took the right
turnings at all!

It was after two o'clock when Rowena was refreshing herself with
sandwiches produced from Guy Seton's case during an interval of rest,
when the hounds were drawing a spinney, that she cast her eyes to right
and left over the scattered field, and remarked carelessly:

"I don't see Dreda! The boys are there, and the Websters and Maud; but
I don't see Dreda anywhere--do you?"

Guy Seton cast a cursory glance in the direction indicated.

"She is probably behind a tree or a hedge, hiding from the wind. Miss
Dreda strikes me as a young woman who can take remarkably good care of
herself. Do take another sandwich! To please me! I'm so afraid you
will feel faint."

Evidently Rowena was considered less able to look after herself than her
younger sister; for on this, as at every moment of the afternoon, she
was guarded, directed, and cared for as though she had been the most
helpless and timid of children; and the extraordinary thing about it was
that Rowena, who was in reality a most capable and self-confident young
woman, made not the slightest objection, but seemed thoroughly to enjoy
the experience.

Half an hour later on Gurth took the opportunity of another halt to ride
up to Rowena's side with a repetition of her own question.

"I say, Ro--have you seen anything of Dreda? She and Norah West seem to
have disappeared altogether. I can't think what's happened to them."

"Perhaps they felt tired, and have gone home. Dreda's all right if she
has someone with her," returned Rowena easily, and Gurth accepted the
explanation and immediately dismissed the subject from his mind.

Guy Seton was troubled with no fears about the missing girls; but
hearing Rowena mention the word "tired," became straightway devoured
with anxiety lest the epithet should in any way apply to herself. In
vain did she protest with the most radiant and dimpling of smiles. She
could no more deny that four hours in the saddle was an unusual exertion
than that the weather had taken a change for the worse, and that home
lay a good eight miles away. The exhilaration of the moment was such
that she felt as if it were impossible ever to be tired again;
nevertheless, it was sweet to be cared for, sweet to s