himself of that fact by a visit here," said Lady Lyle. "Don't you think
so, Mr. Maitland?"

"I am disposed to agree with you," said he, gravely.

"Besides," added Sir Arthur, "he must have come over in the 'Foyle,'
and ought to be able to bring me some news of my horses. Those two rough
nights have made me very uneasy about them."

"Another reason for a little attention on his part," said her Ladyship,
bridling; and then, as if anxious to show that so insignificant a theme
could not weigh on her thoughts, she asked her daughter when Mark and
Isabella purposed coming home.

"They spoke of Saturday, mamma; but it seems now that Mrs. Maxwell has
got up--or somebody has for her--an archery meeting for Tuesday, and she
writes a most pressing entreaty for me to drive over, and, if possible,
persuade Mr. Maitland to accompany me."

"Which I sincerely trust he will not think of."

"And why, dearest mamma?"

"Can you ask me, Alice? Have we not pushed Mr. Maitland's powers of
patience far enough by our own dulness, without subjecting him to the
stupidities of Tilney Park?--the dreariest old mansion of a dreary
neighborhood."

"But he might like it. As a matter of experimental research, he told us
how he passed an autumn with the Mandans, and ate nothing but eels and
wood-squirrels."

"You are forgetting the prairie rats, which are really delicacies."

"Nor did I include the charms of the fair Chachinhontas, who was the
object of your then affections," said she, laughingly, but in a lower
tone.

"So, then," said he, "Master Mark has been playing traitor, and
divulging my confidence. The girl was a marvellous horsewoman, which is
a rare gift with Indian women. I 've seen her sit a drop-leap--I 'll
not venture to say the depth, but certainly more than the height of a
man--with her arms extended wide, and the bridle loose and flowing."

"And you followed in the same fashion?" asked Alice, with a roguish
twinkle of the eye.

"I see that Mark has betrayed me all through," said he, laughing. "I own
I tried it, but not with the success that such ardor deserved. I came
head-foremost to the ground before my horse."

"After all, Mr. Maitland, one is not obliged to ride like a savage,"
said Lady Lyle.

"Except when one aspires to the hand of a savage princess, mamma. Mr.
Maitland was ambitious in those days."

"Very true," said he, with a deep sigh; "but it was the only time in my
life in which I could say that I suffe