I saw Adela shudder. Presently she asked her papa whether it was not time to go home. Mrs. Armstrong proposed that she should stay all night; but she evidently wished to go. It would be rather perilous work to drive down the hill with the wind behind, in such a night, but a servant was sent to hasten the carriage notwithstanding. The colonel and Percy and I ran along side of it, ready to render any assistance that might be necessary; and, although we all said we had never been out in such an uproar of the elements, we reached home in safety. As Adela bade us good night in the hall, I certainly felt very uneasy as to the effects of the night's adventures upon her--she looked so pale and wretched. She did not come down to breakfast. But she appeared at lunch, nothing the worse, and in very good spirits. If I did not think that this had something to do with another fact I have come to the knowledge of since, I don't know that the particulars of the evening need have been related so minutely. The other fact was this: that in the grey dawn of the morning, by which time the snow had ceased, though the wind still blew, Adela saw from her window a weary rider and wearier horse pass the house, going up the street. The heads of both were sunk low. You might have thought the poor mare was looking for something she had lost last night in the snow; and perhaps it was not all fatigue with Harry Armstrong. Perhaps he was giving thanks that he had saved two lives instead of losing his own. He was not so absorbed, however, but that he looked up at the house as he passed, and I believe he saw the blind of her window drop back into its place. But how did she come to be looking out just at the moment? If a lady has not slept all night, and has looked out of window ninety-nine times before, it is not very wonderful that at the hundredth time she should see what she was looking for; that is, if the object desired has not been lost in the snow, or drowned in a moorland pit; neither of which had happened to Harry Armstrong. Nor is it unlikely that, after seeing what she has watched for, she will fall too fast asleep to be roused by the breakfast bell. CHAPTER V. PERCY AND HIS MOTHER. At luncheon, the colonel said-- "Well, Adela, you will be glad to know that our hero of last night returned quite safe this morning." "I am glad to know it, papa." "He is one of the right sort, that young fellow. Duty is the first thing with him." "Perhaps duty may not have been his only motive," said Mrs. Cathcart, coldly. "It was too good an opportunity to be lost." Adela seemed to understand her, for she blushed--but not with embarrassment alone, for the fire that made her cheek glow red, flashed in flames from her eyes.