"I can not have five minutes to myself to think," she said to herself, drawing hastily back behind the thick screen of leaves until they should pass. She did not feel in the humor just then to listen to Miss Raynor's chatter or pretty Grace Alden's gossip. "Of course every one has a right to their own opinion," Grace was saying, with a toss of her pretty nut-brown curls, "and I, for one, do not believe he cares for her one whit." "It is certainly very strange," responded Miss Raynor, thoughtfully. "Every one can see she is certainly in love with Rex; but I am afraid it is quite a one-sided affair." "Yes," said Grace, laughing shyly, "a _very_ one-sided affair. Why, have you ever noticed them together--how Pluma watches his face and seems to live on his smiles? And as for Rex, he always seems to be looking over her head into the distance, as though he saw something there far more interesting than the face of his bride-to-be. That doesn't look much like love or a contented lover." "If you had seen him this morning you might well say he did not look contented," replied Miss Raynor, mysteriously. "I was out for a morning ramble, and, feeling a little tired, I sat down on a moss-covered stone to rest. Hearing the approaching clatter of a horse's hoofs, I looked up and saw Rex Lyon coming leisurely down the road. I could not tell you what prompted me to do it, but I drew quietly back behind the overhanging alder branches that skirted the brook, admiring him all unseen." "Oh, dear!" cried Grace, merrily, "this is almost too good to keep. Who would imagine dignified Miss Raynor peeping admiringly at handsome Rex, screened by the shadows of the alders!" "Now don't be ridiculous, Grace, or I shall be tempted not to tell you the most interesting part," returned Miss Raynor, flushing hotly. "Oh, that would be too cruel," cried Grace, who delighted on anything bordering on mystery. "Do tell it." "Well," continued Miss Raynor, dropping her voice to a lower key, "when he was quite opposite me, he suddenly stopped short and quickly dismounted from his horse, and picked up from the roadside a handful of wild flowers." "What in the world could he want with them?" cried Grace, incredulously. "Want with them!" echoed Miss Raynor. "Why, he pressed them to his lips, murmuring passionate, loving words over them. For one brief instant his face was turned toward me, and I saw there were tears standing in his eyes, and there was a look on his face I shall never forget to my dying day. There was such hopeless woe upon it--indeed one might have almost supposed, by the expression of his face, he was waiting for his death-sentence to be pronounced instead of a marriage ceremony, which was to give him the queenly heiress of Whitestone Hall for a bride." "Perhaps there is some hidden romance in the life of handsome Rex the world does not know of," suggested Grace, sagely.