"And how are you two going to amuse yourselves to-day?" "In any manner you like, or that Mrs. John Temple likes," answered Mrs. Temple. "If you do not mind, John," said May, rather quickly, "I should like to go over to Woodside this morning to see my father, as I think he will expect me to do so. And," she added, with rather a wistful little smile, looking up in his face, "I hope you will come with me." But John Temple's brow clouded, and he slightly shrugged his shoulders. "My dear child," he said, "that is a luxury which I am really not prepared to encounter. And why be in such a hurry to go over to Woodside?" "I think my father would be disappointed if I did not go," answered May, gently, but her face flushed and her eyes fell; "but I can go alone." "Then you had better drive over," said John Temple. "And what would you like to do, Rachel?" "Do you feel in the humor for a ride?" replied Mrs. Temple. "It is a fine morning; suppose we have a ride, John?" "All right; what time shall I order the carriage and the horses then?" "Shall we say eleven?" said Mrs. Temple, and she looked at May, but May's eyes were still cast down. They, however, settled it thus, and when May returned to the morning-room about an hour later, she found Mrs. Temple already there, dressed in her habit, and John Temple talking to her. "I hope May is not disappointed because I do not care to go to Woodside?" John was saying. "She could not expect you to do so," answered Mrs. Temple, just as May entered the room. She heard the words, and somehow felt that they had been talking of her. But when a few minutes later the carriage and the riding-horses came round John Temple led his young wife to the carriage and handed her in, and nodded smilingly to her as he was turning away. "Have you any message for my father?" said May, bending forward. "Anything you like," answered John, still smiling; and then he went back to the house, and May was driven in state to her old home. And the arrival at Woodside of one of the Hall carriages, drawn by two handsome horses, with their black rosetted heads, and the servants also in mourning for their late master, naturally created quite a sensation at the homestead. Mr. Churchill was not in the house at the time, but one of the grooms hastily went in search of him to the stables. As for Mrs. Churchill, she no sooner heard that her stepdaughter was in the house than she hurried upstairs to change her dress, though she had previously determined to make no difference in her manner to May. But the two prancing horses outside and the handsome carriage influenced her in spite of herself. She went into the drawing-room quite in a flutter, to find May standing there looking a little pensively around. What she had gone through since she had been in this room May was thinking. But Mrs. Churchill's effusive welcome interrupted her reflections.