'Desmond's animal was nowhere; but, perhaps, you won't be sorry for that. Some say he has lost a pot of money, and may have to leave the Brigade; anyway, it did not prevent him from returning with some dolls in his hat-band. For some reason--gout, it was whispered--the baronet did not go to the Derby, so the fair Evelyn agreed with him that it was only fit for boys, and declined to go either. Why should a gentleman go, to have his clothes covered by dust or flour, his hat, perhaps, banished by a cocoa-nut; and why a lady, to see and hear all the horrid things that were said or done? Yet, in times past, she had gone and faced all these things and more, so it suited her to play propriety on that Derby Day; but when Ascot came, she was there making bets, even 'ponies,' in full swing. 'I came here at first to have a shot or two at the birds for a week, by express invitation, as I told you, and then I may, perhaps, join you on the Continent after all. Ida matronises the household, and a lovely matron she makes, with her sweet, sad grace. Sir John and Lady Oriel are here, old Colonel Rakes and his wife, and that titled _parvenu_, Lord Brixton, with some others, to await the return of the "young couple" from Germany, whither they have gone to hide their blushes; and the tenantry are getting up an enormous triumphal archway at the avenue gate; the public-house at the village is getting a new signboard; the ringers are practising chimes in the old Saxon spire; the schoolmaster is composing an epithalamium, and the Carnaby volunteer artillery are to fire a salute on the lawn. But I wonder how I can write so frivolously, for something occurred on the third day after I came that has caused me much discomfort and perplexity. 'There is an arbour in the garden, one of many, but before this I mean there stands a marble Psyche.' (How well Trevor Chute could remember that arbour--a kiosk--with all its iron lattice-work and gilded knobs, and the masses of roses and clematis, Virginia creeper and ivy, all matted and woven in profusion over it. Many a time had he sat there with Clare, and often in a silence that was not without its eloquence. 'Well; and what of the arbour?' thought he, turning again to the letter of Jerry.) 'When passing among the shrubberies, I saw Ida seated in that arbour, with a book in her lap, and, to all appearance, lost in thought. A flood of amber light, shed by the evening sun, poured aslant through an opening in the greenery upon her white neck and lustrous auburn hair, which shone like gold, as her hat was off and lay beside her. A great joy filled my heart as I thought of the hopes given me during the meeting at Rakes' house, and after watching her beauty for a minute or so in silence I was about to join her, when she looked upward, and then there appeared, what I had not before perceived, so absorbed had I been in her, a man, unknown to me, looking down upon her--a man with whom she seemed to be in close conversation.