"There's no racing that day! Look here, Gay, I'll use every means of bribery and corruption to get Tom to drive us down--" "Don't," said Gay coldly. "Put it on the bare ground of loyalty to a friend." "Call it what you like. And if he does, we'll stick to you like burrs--anyone who cheapens you, takes on the three--" "Thank you, Effie," said Gay quietly, but wishing all the same that her friend had done the right thing, without having the way pointed out to her so violently. "Come out," cried Effie briskly--"come out and show yourself. My motor's at the door. Put on your smartest hat and clothes, and your best 'don't-care-a-damn' smile, and face the music." Gay did, and by the time they had shopped in Bond Street, traversed Piccadilly twice, dropped in at Effie's club, and fooled round generally till lunch-time, then attended an At Home or two, winding up with tea at Rumpelmeyer's, it was the general opinion of those who saw her, that the person least ashamed of what she had done the preceding day, was Miss Gay Lawless. CHAPTER XX A TICKLISH MOMENT Tom Bulteel, red-faced, blue-eyed, taciturn, with Gay beside, and his wife and Rensslaer behind him, tooled his bays down to the next Trotting Meeting, and tried to look as pleasant as the character of the big crowd and unwonted surroundings permitted. The attendance was a record one, the front of the track thronged with people, while the number of conveyances of all kinds, from waggonettes to nondescript traps, was altogether phenomenal, for it was the expectation of seeing Miss Lawless drive again, and also the possibility of Rensslaer doing so, that had brought down a strong contingent of the press. A multitude of snapshotters attended her every look and movement, those, however, who expected an Amazon, found a pretty, modest little girl, very quietly dressed, under the powerful ægis of the well-known Captain and Mrs. Bulteel, and the boisterous half-cheer of greeting from the Ring that broke forth at sight of her when the coach swept up, was somehow never finished. Probably if Rensslaer had not been present at her recent new departure, and displayed such an obvious interest in her, no particular scandal would have attached to it, and Gay's driving herself been regarded merely as the bold freak of a free-and-easy young lady, who went in for a free-and-easy sport, and as such applauded. But his close attendance had focussed public attention upon her, inclining an eager trotting world to the belief that she had converted him to her views, and that shortly he would bring his enormous experience, superb driving, and splendid cattle to the sport, thereby giving it a tremendous leg-up. But in this also, as in Gay's case, they were disappointed, for neither then, nor at any subsequent time, did Rensslaer repeat his performance on the Gold Cup day.