r ladyship to your own house. For fear of scandal
you have not openly rebuffed me previous to this time; for a like reason
you will not order your lacqueys to shut your door when I enter it with
you."

My Lady Dunstanwolde turned to gaze at him again. The sun shone on his
bright falling locks and his blue eyes as she had seen it shine in days
which seemed so strangely long passed by, though they were not five years
agone.

"'Tis strange," she said, with a measure of wonder, "to live and be so
black a devil."

"Bah! my lady," he said, "these are fine words--and fine words do not
hold between us. Let us leave them. I would escort you home, and speak
to you in private." There was that in his mocking that was madness to
her, and made her sick and dizzy with the boiling of the blood which
surged to her brain. The fury of passion which had been a terror to all
about her when she had been a child was upon her once more, and though
she had thought herself freed from its dominion, she knew it again and
all it meant. She felt the thundering beat in her side, the hot flood
leaping to her cheek, the flame burning her eyes themselves as if fire
was within them. Had he been other than he was, her face itself would
have been a warning. But he pressed her hard. As he would have slunk
away a beaten cur if she had held the victory in her hands, so feeling
that the power was his, he exulted over the despairing frenzy which was
in her look.

"I pay back old scores," he said. "There are many to pay. When you
crowned yourself with roses and set your foot upon my face, your ladyship
thought not of this! When you gave yourself to Dunstanwolde and spat at
me, you did not dream that there could come a time when I might goad as
you did."

She struck Devil with her whip, who leaped forward; but Sir John followed
hard behind her. He had a swift horse too, and urged him fiercely, so
that between these two there was a race as if for life or death. The
beasts bounded forward, spurning the earth beneath their feet. My lady's
face was set, her eyes were burning flame, her breath came short and
pantingly between her teeth. Oxon's fair face was white with passion; he
panted also, but strained every nerve to keep at her side, and kept
there.

"Keep back! I warn thee!" she cried once, almost gasping.

"Keep back!" he answered, blind with rage. "I will follow thee to hell!"

And in this wise they galloped over the white road unti