She took it, naturally; springing to the ground as lightly as any _debutante_ of the season. Not one trace of annoyance, even, showed on that best educated face. "Andy, we _are_ old friends," she said, offering her hand frankly. He took it mechanically, with a dazed soft of feeling that he must be even a bigger fool than he felt himself. "Real friends," Miss Wood went on, pleasantly, "and I'll prove it to you now. _You_ have acted like a man of honor to me; _I_ will betray one little confidence, and make two people happy!" The man still stood dumb; and his eye furtively wandered to the pawing off-horse, as if to take _his_ confidence as to what it meant. The woman's next words came slowly, and she smiled; a strange smile the lips alone made, but in which the glinting gray eyes took no share. "For Van Morris is your best friend, after all. He will remember that I told him, last night, 'One cannot be too careful'!" She rose on tiptoe, whispered three words, and was gone before he could frame one in reply. Once more those ill-used bays got the whip fiercely; and they turned the corner so short that Mr. Trotter Upton looked over his shoulder with a grin, and remarked to the blaze-faced companion in his sulky shafts: "Nine hundred dollars' worth of horse risked with nine dollars' worth of man! Van Morris better drive his own stock. G'long!" VIII. It was two o'clock when Mr. Andrew Browne had ridden forth to recapture his plighted troth. The shades of Christmas evening had now wrapped the city completely, and the gilt clock upon his parlor mantel now pointed to six. Still he had not returned; and still Van Morris's eagerness to test the issue of his own tactics was too keen to let him leave their rooms. He had even resisted the temptations of a gossip at the club, and was smoking his fifth cigar--a thought-amused smile wreathing his lips--when the chime of six startled him suddenly to his feet. "How time flies!" he exclaimed. "And we are to dine at the Allmand's at seven." He tossed away his cigar, turned into his own apartment, and made an unusually careful toilet. Then he looked into Browne's still vacant room once more. "Where _can_ he be?" he muttered. "By George! he must have bungled fearfully if he did not pull through. He certainly had his lesson by heart! But _she_ must not be kept waiting," and his face softened greatly, and the deep, strong light came back into his eyes. "How ceaselessly that old verse comes back to me! And now 'to put it to the test' myself." He turned to his escritoire, and took a small Russia case from the drawer; then to the mantel, and carefully shook the dampness from the two flowers he had placed there that morning. Putting case and flowers carefully in his vest pocket, Van paused at the door, gave a long, sweeping glance--with a sort of farewell in it--to the rooms; then shut himself outside, still repeating _sotto voce_,