rapidly up the hill. I looked out and saw a rider coming forward at a very
fast pace. Before I had time for even a guess as to who it was, he drew
up, and I recognized Captain Trevyllian. There was a certain look of easy
impertinence and half-smiling satisfaction about his features I had never
seen before, as he touched his cap in salute, and said,--

"May I have the honor of a few words' conversation with you?"

I bowed silently, while he dismounted, and passing his bridle beneath his
arm, walked on beside me.

"My friend Captain Hammersley has commissioned me to wait upon you about
this unpleasant affair--"

"I beg pardon for the interruption, Captain Trevyllian, but as I have yet
to learn to what you or your friend alludes, perhaps it may facilitate
matters if you will explicitly state your meaning."

He grew crimson on the cheek as I said this, while, with a voice perfectly
unmoved, he continued,--

"I am not sufficiently in my friend's confidence to know the whole of the
affair in question, nor have I his permission to enter into any of it, he
probably presuming, as I certainly did myself, that your sense of honor
would have deemed further parley and discussion both unnecessary and
unseasonable."

"In fact, then, if I understand, it is expected that I should meet Captain
Hammersley for some reason unknown--"

"He certainly desires a meeting with you," was the dry reply.

"And as certainly I shall not give it, before understanding upon what
grounds."

"And such I am to report as your answer?" said he, looking at me at the
moment with an expression of ill-repressed triumph as he spoke.

There was something in these few words, as well as in the tone in which
they were spoken, that sunk deeply in my heart. Was it that by some trick
of diplomacy he was endeavoring to compromise my honor and character? Was
it possible that my refusal might be construed into any other than the
real cause? I was too young, too inexperienced in the world to decide the
question for myself, and no time was allowed me to seek another's counsel.
What a trying moment was that for me; my temples throbbed, my heart beat
almost audibly, and I stood afraid to speak; dreading on the one hand lest
my compliance might involve me in an act to embitter my life forever, and
fearful on the other, that my refusal might be reported as a trait of
cowardice.

He saw, he read my difficulty at a glance, and with a smile of most
supercilious expres