cimen in particular, while her watching companion held her
breath in trembling alarm.

At last Miss Blake told Nan decidedly that unless she were willing to
ride properly she must give it up altogether.

"I cannot stand this strain any longer," she said, in real distress.

She and Mrs. Newton and the girl herself were taking their first ride
in company since the early summer. Now it was autumn, and the leaves
were turning. Mrs. Newton had just come back from the country, and Nan
was eager to display her skill, which she felt had improved not a
little since their neighbor's departure.

The fresh wind, keen and bracing as it came from the sea, filled her
with a sense of new strength and energy, and she felt the effect of the
invigorating atmosphere in her blood. A scent of burning leaves was in
the air, and the indescribable suggestion of coming winter gayety.
To-day the road was crowded with carriages. They thronged the
fashionable drive, and lent it a peculiarly animated aspect.
Equestrians and wheelmen were also out in full force, and the presence
of so many people set Nan's blood tingling with excitement. She tossed
her head back, as the governess uttered her decision, with the
impatience of a mettlesome horse.

"Now remember!" warned Miss Blake.

Perhaps it was just this extra little warning that proved too much for
Nan's overcharged, headstrong spirit--or perhaps she did not hear in
the midst of the noise of hoofs and wheels about them.

They were spinning noiselessly along the outer edge of the driveway
leading from the Park entrance to the cycle path, when suddenly Nan
gave a quick run forward and then made a swift dart for the other side,
weaving perilously in and out among the horses and moving vehicles,
dexterously dodging, veering, and turning until Miss Blake's heart
throbbed thickly from dread and her pulses beat heavily in her temples.

"I must overtake her," she cried to her companion. "She will be
killed! I must save her!"

Even as she spoke her breath caught in a short gasp, and she turned
suddenly rigid and ashen white.

Coming up the road at full speed was a horse, whose driver, sitting
close over its haunches in his narrow sulky, was racing his animal
against one similarly driven and urging it on to its utmost pace for
winning honor.

At his approach a clear path was made for him by the turning right and
left of the throng--by all save Nan.

She heard a man's voice shout hoarsely