e?" she said, with her head archly on one side.
"That would be arrant poaching. Don't fear, Graydon, I shall never
regard any man as game, not even if I should become a fat dowager with
a bevy of plain daughters and a dull market."

Grave and silent Mr. Muir leaned back in his chair and laughed so
heartily that he attracted attention at the Wildmere table across the
room.

"That man doesn't act as if on the brink of failure," thought Miss
Wildmere. "It's all a conspiracy of Arnault with papa."

"You are making game of me in one sense very successfully," Graydon
admitted, laughing a little uneasily.

"Oh, in that sense, all men are legitimate game, and I shall chaff as
many as possible, out of spite that I was not a man."

"You would make a good one--you are so devoid of sentiment and so
independent."

"And yet within a week I think a certain gentleman was inclined to
think me sentimental, aesthetic, intense, a victim of ideals and
devotional rhapsodies."

"Oh, ye gods! Here, waiter, bring me my dessert, and let me escape,"
cried Graydon.

"Did you say I was to be ready at five?" she asked, sweetly.

"Yes, and bring down articles of a truce, and we'll sign them in red
ink."

An hour later she heard the gallop of a horse, and saw him riding
away. "She shan't mount the animal," he had thought, "till I learn
more about him and give him all the running he wants to-day. She has
a heavy enough score against me as it is, and I'll not employ another
brute to make things worse."

He learned more fully what he had discovered before, that she would
have her hands full in managing the horse, and he gave him a run that
covered him with foam and tested his breathing. At four he galloped
back to the station to see if the saddle had arrived, but found that
even his skill and strength were not sufficient to make the animal
approach the engine. Shouting to the baggage-man to bring the expected
articles to the stable, he was soon there and made another experiment.
A hostler brought him a blanket, which he strapped around his waist,
and mounted again in a lady's style. It was at once evident that the
horse had never been ridden by a woman. He reared, kicked, and plunged
around frightfully, and Graydon had to clutch the mane often to keep
his seat. Madge had speedily joined him, and looked with absorbed
interest, at times laughing, and again imploring Graydon to dismount.
This he at last he did, the perspiration pouring from h