"But I want you to come this instant." "And leave a duty unperformed?" inquired Ridge, teasingly. "Yes; now." "In a minute." "No. I won't wait another second." With this the girl flung herself from the room, wearing a very determined expression on her flushed face. Ridge rose to follow her, and then resumed his occupation as a clatter of hoofs on the magnolia-bordered driveway announced the arrival of a horseman. "She won't go now that she has a caller to entertain," he said to himself. But in this he was mistaken; for within a minute another clatter of hoofs, mingled with the sound of laughing voices, gave notice of a departure, and, glancing from an open window, Ridge saw Spence Cuthbert ride gayly past in company with a young man whose face seemed familiar, but whose name he could not recall. As they swept by both looked up laughing, while the horseman lifted his hat in a bow that was almost too sweeping to be polite. "What did you say Ridge was doing?" he asked, as they passed beyond earshot. "Arranging a bowl of roses," answered Spence. "Nice occupation for a man," sneered the other. "And he preferred doing that to riding with you?" "So it seems." "Well, I am not wholly surprised, for, as I remember him, he was a soft-hearted, Miss Nancy sort of a boy, who was always coddling sick kittens, or something of the kind, and never would go hunting because he couldn't bear to kill things. He apparently hadn't a drop of sporting blood in him, and I recall having to thrash him on one occasion because he objected to my shooting a bird. I thought of course, though, that he had outgrown all such nonsense by this time." "There is no nonsense about him!" flashed out Spence, warmly; and then, to her companion's amazement, the girl began a most spirited defence of her absent cousin, during which she denounced in such bitter terms the taking of innocent lives under the name of "sport" that the other was finally thankful to change the conversation to a more congenial topic. In the mean time Dulce Norris had entered the morning-room to find out why Spence had gone to ride with Herman Dodley instead of with Ridge, as had been arranged. "Was that Herman Dodley?" asked the latter, without answering his sister's question. "Yes, of course, but why do you ask with such a tragic air?" "Because," replied Ridge, "I have heard reports concerning him which, if confirmed, should bar the doors of this house against him forever." "What do you mean, Ridge Norris? I'm sure Mr. Dodley bears as good a reputation as the majority of young men one meets in society. Of course since he has got into politics his character has been assailed by the other party; but then no one ever believes what politicians say of one another." "No matter now what I mean," rejoined the young man. "Perhaps I will tell you after I have spoken to father on the subject, which I mean to do at once."