with innocent
childish entreaty, almost as if they had still been children and
playfellows, "I want you to do this for me--I want you to take Bates."

"Why, you dear simple-minded baby, I would take a regiment of Bateses
for your sake. Why this is not a favour----"

"''Tis as I should entreat you wear your gloves,'" cried Vixen, quoting
Desdemona's speech to her general.

Rorie's ready promise had revived her spirit. She felt that, after all,
there was such a thing as friendship in the world. Life was not
altogether blank and dreary. She forgot that her old friend had given
himself away to another woman. She had a knack of forgetting that
little fact when she and Rorie were together. It was only in her hours
of solitude that the circumstance presented itself distinctly to her
mind.

"I am so grateful to you for this, Rorie," she cried. "I cannot tell
you what a load you have taken off my mind. I felt sure you would do me
this favour. And yet, if you had said No----! It would have been too
dreadful to think of. Poor old Bates loafing about Beechdale, living
upon his savings! I shall be able to pension him by-and-by, when I am
of age; but now I have only a few pounds in the world, the remains of a
quarter's pocket-money, according to the view and allowance of the
forester," added Vixen, quoting the Forest law, with a little mocking
laugh. "And now good-night; I must go home as fast as I can."

"So you must, but I am coming with you," answered Rorie; and then he
roared again in his stentorian voice in the direction of the stables,
"Where's that Blue Peter?"

"Indeed, there is no reason for you to come," cried Vixen. "I know
every inch of the Forest."

"Very likely; but I am coming with you all the same."

A groom led out Blue Peter, a strong useful-looking hack, which Mr.
Vawdrey kept to do his dirty work, hunting in bad weather, night-work,
and extra journeys of all kinds. Rorie was in the saddle and by Vixen's
side without a minute's lost time, and they were riding out of the
grounds into the straight road.

They rode for a considerable time in silence. Vixen had seldom seen her
old friend so thoughtful. The night deepened, the stars shone out of
the clear heaven, at first one by one: and then, suddenly in a
multitude that no tongue could number. The leaves whispered and rustled
with faint mysterious noises, as Violet and her companion rode slowly
down the long steep hill.

"What a beast that Winstanley is!"