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I noticed nearly everybody in the neighborhood motoring or driving toward the house during the afternoon. Millicent's with Nasmyth now, helping to arrange things. It's wonderful what a favorite Lisle has become in so short a time; but I own that I find something very likable about him." Gladwyne moved impatiently.
Millicent was conscious of a relief which puzzled her by its intensity as she heard the news, but she asked Nasmyth to send somebody to inform Gladwyne. "I think he's desperately anxious and feeling the thing very badly," she concluded. "Then he could have come over to inquire, as you have done," Nasmyth answered. "In my opinion, he deserves to be uncomfortable." "Why are you so hard on him?"
Gladwyne had undoubtedly not done so, and she was filled with alarm. It was most desirable that Millicent should marry Clarence. "How long have you had this in your mind?" she asked. "That is more than I can tell you," he answered thoughtfully. "I admired her greatly the first time I saw her; I admired her more when we made friends, but I don't think I went much farther for a while.
"I'm afraid that was an undue exaggeration of a natural feeling," she remonstrated. "How could your staying have helped him, when by going in search of help you increased his only chance of safety? I have always been glad you were clear-headed enough to realize it, instead of yielding to mistaken emotional inclinations." Gladwyne felt hot with shame.
"Nasmyth hadn't come up when the chestnut reached the hurdles; he was the nearest. Lisle was down with the horse upon him. He couldn't have seen anything." "Well," she decided, "perhaps that's fortunate. It isn't likely that Gladwyne will get such an opportunity again, and at the worst he acted on the spur of the moment." The lad nodded.
He thought Gladwyne was relieved at his answer, for the latter smiled genially. "Well," he said, "we must try to make your visit to this country pleasant." Shortly after this, the group broke up and Gladwyne, escaping from his guests, slipped out on to the terrace and walked up and down.
"The word you used is not quite the one I should have chosen. Clarence Gladwyne is graceful; I think this Canadian is something better. To-night he was actuated by genuine chivalry. My esteem may not be worth much, but it is his." Moved by some impulse, Millicent kissed her. "I've no doubt he'd value it. But I can't have Clarence depreciated; and it's getting very late."
Nasmyth had his failings, but he had also his simple, drastic code, and it was repugnant to him that a man of his own caste, one of a family he had long known and respected, should countenance an outsider of Batley's kind and assist him in fleecing a silly vicious lad. "You have no reason to think well of Gladwyne," Lisle reminded him. "I haven't," Nasmyth owned.
Of course; it was George's guide I was thinking of." She turned to Millicent, adding in an audible aside: "I've a bad habit of forgetting. Forgive me, my dear." Everything considered, it was, perhaps, the most awkward thing she could have said; but Lisle's bronzed face was imperturbable, and Gladwyne had promptly recovered his composure as he realized the mistake.
If the two formed an offensive alliance, he would be helpless at their hands. In the meanwhile, Nasmyth has been training his horse for the approaching meeting and after trying him against one belonging to a neighbor and not finding it fast enough he had reluctantly fallen back on a chestnut owned by Gladwyne. The animal possessed a fine speed and some jumping powers.
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