That name still rang in his ears, and he repeated it again and again, each time assuring himself how impossible it was that it should be she—the only she to him in all the world. And supposing it were, what did it matter? What good could her existence do him? She would despise him now—no position, no name, no money, no Rocket, and here he paused, for above all thoughts of the Golden Haired towered the terrible one that Rocket was his no longer—that the evil he most dreaded had come upon him. “But I’ll meet it like a man,” he said, and springing into his saddle he rode back to Frankfort and dismounted at Harney’s door. In dogged silence Harney received the money, gave his receipt, and then, without a word, watched Hugh as he rode again from town, muttering to himself, “I shall remember that he knocked me down, and some time I’ll repay it.” * * * * * It was dark when Hugh reach home, his lowering brow and flashing eyes indicating the fierce storm which was gathering, and which burst the moment he entered the room where ’Lina was sitting. In tones which made even her tremble he accused her of her treachery, pouring forth such a torrent of wrath that his mother urged him to stop, for her sake if no other. She could always quiet Hugh, and he calmed down at once, hurling but one more missile at his sister, and that in the shape of Rocket, who, he said, was sold for her extravagance. ’Lina was proud of Rocket, and the knowledge that he was sold touched her far more than all Hugh’s angry words. But her tears were of no avail; the deed was done, and on the morrow Hugh, with an unflinching hand, led his idol from the stable and rode rapidly across the fields, leading another horse which was to bring him home. Gloomily the next morning broke, and at rather a late hour for him, Hugh, with a heavy sigh, had raised himself upon his elbow, wondering if it were a dream, or if during the night he had really heard Rocket’s familiar tramp upon the lawn, when Lulu came running up the stairs; exclaiming, joyfully, “He’s done come home, Rocket has. He’s at the kitchen door.” It was as Lulu said, for the homesick brute, suspecting something wrong, had broken from his fastenings, and bursting the stable door had come back to Spring Bank, his halter dangling about his neck, and himself looking very defiant, as if he were not again to be coaxed away. At sight of Hugh he uttered a sound of joy, and bounding forward planted both feet within the door ere Hugh had time to reach it. “Thar’s the old colonel now,” whispered Claib, just as the colonel appeared to claim his runaway.