I'd like to be cleared of cowardice some time. You
can afford to do it. She loves you. You will have everything, I
nothing--nothing at all."
There was a note so thrilling, a golden timbre to the voice, an
indescribable melancholy so affecting that Hagar grasped the other's hand
and said, "So help me God, I will!"
"All right."
He prepared to go. At the door Hagar said to him, "Shall I see you again?"
"Probably in the morning. Good-night."
Telford went back to the hotel and found the horse he had ordered at the
door. He got up at once. People looked at him curiously, it was peculiar
to see a man riding at night for pleasure, and, of course, it could be for
no other purpose. "When will you be back, sir?" said the groom.
"I do not know." He slipped a coin into the groom's hand. "Sit up for me.
The beast is a good one?"
"The best we have. Been a hunter, sir."
Telford nodded, stroked the horse's neck and started. He rode down toward
the gate. He saw Mildred Margrave coming toward him.
"Oh, Mr. Telford!" she said. "You forsook us to-day, which was unkind.
Mamma says--she has seen you, she tells me--that you are a friend of my
stepfather, Mr. Gladney. That's nice, for I like you ever so much, you
know." She raised her warm, intelligent eyes to his.
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