"But I _didn't_ want," cried Gay, "and as to that Gold Vase, it may be turned into a coal vase for all I care. He--he is going abroad at once--he has written to tell me so." "_Reculer pour mieux sauter_," said Effie significantly. "Awfully good form of him, though, to clear out just now, instead of appearing like a tradesman with his bill made out, waiting for it to be paid, and a receipt given! And Chris out of the running, too! Poor Gay! You'll have to take the Trotting man after all." "Only, even if I wished it, he won't take me," said Gay, and laughed at the epithet--Effie, like others, was still possessed of the entirely mistaken idea that Trotting was the be-all and end-all of Rensslaer's life, when in fact it was only one, and that by no means the greatest, of his hobbies. "I don't believe in platonics, you know," said Effie drily, "and I intruded on quite an affecting little tableau just now. But now, Gay, what are you going to do? Tom says, of course, you'll drop it--the Trotting, I mean-- "I'd die sooner!" cried Gay, with flashing eyes. "Effie, if you've come here only to tell me that, then you are no real pal of mine. The least you can do is to stand by me, you and Tom--I can't attend the race Meetings alone, or with Lossie, who has been perfectly hateful to me." "Ah!" said Effie sympathetically, "she would, you know!" "And Frank simply won't--besides, I don't want to be regarded as keeper to a lunatic. Failing you and Tom, I'll have to attend the meetings with Rensslaer or Min Toplady--or both! We don't want our friends when we are in the right, but to dig us out of holes that our own folly has let us into--though in spite of everything I'm glad, _glad_ I drove yesterday!" "It's true I have some influence over Tom," said Effie thoughtfully. "Boundless," murmured Gay. "But I don't think it goes far enough to make him attend, or consent to my appearing at, a Trotting Meeting. I believe he's really glad Carlton's warned off--a sort of being saved from the evil to come, you know." "If the man I married, refused to perform an act of Christian charity for my greatest friend, I'd know the reason why, that's all," said Gay curtly. Effie gasped. This was a new Gay, with whom she did not know how to reckon--evidently Trotting was spoiling her sweet temper.... "But is it charity?" she said. "Didn't you say just now how you'd have liked to do what I did?" cried Gay in a rage, "and now you're jibbing at the consequences! I don't--I face them. And it's just a piece of snobbishness for Tom to turn up his nose at what is good enough for Rensslaer, and the very pick of American sportsmen!" "Yes, everywhere but in England," said Effie absently. Gay's jibes had hit her hard, and she was wondering if it would be possible to persuade Tom... "When is the next Meeting--and where?" she said. Gay told her, and making a rapid calculation of dates and engagements, Effie exclaimed: