"Where's the young missis?" he asked. "She's in the parlor, I think, Mr. Impudence," answered the smart barmaid, tossing her head. "Tell her one of the lads fra' the Grange wants a word wi' her," said Jack, winking one eye, upon which, with another toss of the head, the barmaid vanished; and a few moments later Elsie Wray, who looked pale, agitated, and handsome, appeared. Jack touched his forelock and went up to her, and produced Tom Henderson's letter. "The young master sent this for you, miss," he said. Elsie put out a shapely brown hand and eagerly caught at the letter, and then without another word retired with it and ran hastily upstairs to her own little bedroom to read it. When she got there she tore it open with trembling fingers, and, as her eyes fell on the insulting words it contained, the poor girl turned deadly pale, and staggered back as if something had struck her. "How dare he! How dare he!" she cried aloud, in sharp bitter tones of anguish. Again she read the cruel words. She stared at them as though they burned into her brain, and then with sudden passion she flung the letter on the floor and trampled it beneath her feet. "The coward! The base coward!" she muttered. "So he would buy me off, would he? Me! But he shall see; he shall see!" She began to pace up and down the room after this, evidently revolving some question in her mind. Then she suddenly remembered that the groom from Stourton would probably be waiting for an answer. And with her eyes flashing, and her head thrown back, she returned to the bar in the room below. Jack was still sitting there drinking his beer, and he rose when Elsie appeared. Without a moment's hesitation she went up to him. "Tell him," she said, in concentrated tones of suppressed anger and passion, "that I will be there." That was all; without another word she turned and left the bar, and the men sitting there looked at each other as she did so. The expression of her face was so tragic that it seemed to forebode evil. Jack Reid--the groom's surname was Reid--said nothing. He looked rather frightened, and shortly afterward left the Wayside Inn, declining the offer of the landlord, who was still sitting on the porch, to remain any longer. Meanwhile in her room upstairs Elsie Wray was in a state of mind bordering on distraction. All the hopes of her future life seemed dashed to dust. But with hard-set teeth she told herself that she would not give in. Tom Henderson must keep his word and marry her, even if he never spoke to her afterward. "Or he or I shall die for it," she muttered with bated breath. Then she stole to her father's room, and from a locked cupboard there drew out a loaded revolver. Elsie, a favorite daughter, and one whom he completely trusted, always kept the landlord's keys. Having thus secured the weapon, about two hours later she started with a determined heart to keep the tryst that Tom Henderson had given her.