o tell me. I should tell you everything. Of course you
must hunt whatever it is. Even though he should have offered and you
refused him, of course you must go."

"Must I?" said Ayala.

"Then you have refused him?"

"I have. Oh, Nina, pray do not speak of it. Do not think of it if you
can help it. Why should everything be disturbed because I have been a
fool?"

"Then you think you have been a fool?"

"Other people think so; but if so I shall at any rate be constant to
my folly. What I mean is, that it has been done, and should be passed
over as done with. I am quite sure that I ought not to be scolded;
but Lady Albury did scold me." Then they went down together to
breakfast, Ayala having prepared herself properly for the
hunting-field.

In the waggonette there were with her Lady Albury, Mrs. Gosling, and
Nina, who was not prevented by her lameness from going to the meet.
The gentlemen all rode, so that there was no immediate difficulty
as to Colonel Stubbs. But when she had been put on her horse by
his assistance and found herself compelled to ride away from the
carriage, apparently under his especial guidance, her heart misgave
her, and she thoroughly wished that she was at home in the Crescent.
Though she was specially under his guidance there were at first
others close around her, and, while they were on the road going to
the covert which they were to draw, conversation was kept up so that
it was not necessary for her to speak;--but what should she do when
she should find herself alone with him as would certainly soon be the
case? It soon was the case. The hounds were at work in a large wood
in which she was told they might possibly pass the best part of the
day, and it was not long before the men had dispersed themselves,
some on this side some on that, and she found herself with no one
near her but the Colonel. "Ayala," he said, "of course you know that
it is my duty to look after you, and to do it better if I can than I
did on Friday."

"I understand," she said.

"Do not let any remembrance of that walk on Saturday interfere with
your happiness to-day. Who knows when you may be out hunting again?"

"Never!" she said; "I don't suppose I shall ever hunt again."

"Carpe diem," he said, laughing. "Do you know what 'carpe diem'
means?"

"It is Latin perhaps."

"Yes; and therefore you are not supposed to understand it. This is
what it means. As an hour for joy has come, do not let any trouble
interfere