As he dismounted to examine straps and fastenings, the others dashed up; my lady lightly motioned them on. "We'll soon overtake you! Don't wait!" Unquestioning, they obeyed; though the commandant, to whom a few moments later she delivered a similar injunction, brought his men to a halt and proffered his services. Whereupon the Marquis repeated the girl's words more sharply; reddening, the officer wheeled and started to ride on. "I can't find anything wrong here!" Puzzled, the Marquis straightened. But her eyes were directed ahead and she pointed with her whip to a break in the woody barrier to the right--a path that, springing from the roadside, seemed to plunge into the very heart of the labyrinth. "Look! the short cut!--that would bring us half an hour before them to the ruins! Let us take it!" A light seemed suddenly to break on her companion, and he sprang airily to his saddle. "As my Lady wills!" gallantly. "Then call to the commandant, and tell him we'll meet them there!" The Marquis obeyed, and, without awaiting answer, or demur from the officer in charge of the guard, the girl flicked her horse and sent him over a low bush into the narrow way. Fairly in the path, she rode fast, and pressing hard behind, my lord soon found reason for doubt as to the advisibility of that route, and a suspicion of regret at his own hasty assent to the departure from the main thoroughfare. As their surroundings grew wilder and the slender green figure flitted more and more recklessly before him, he even ventured to voice his misgivings--advise greater care. A shake of the fair head was all he received for answer and, regardless of the increasing roughness of the way, she continued to sweep on, now uphill, then down, avoiding by a quick turn one obstacle here, leaping another there! From a black ambush, a branch like the arm of a Titan reached out to seize, but adroitly she swayed from its grasp and only the twigs and leaves touched lightly the bent figure. My lord, however, they struck sharply, and at the sudden smart and a quick realization of falling behind, frowningly he drove his horse harder. The tête-à-tête he had naturally expected from her request to pursue the lonelier way promised now not to materialize; the idea that she was fleeing, he pursuing, possessed him. The forest, a tangle of shrubs and strange creepers, was the scene of the idyl; she, a sprite of the greenwood, danced illusively through the maze. At length when my lord had begun to grow weary of vainly endeavoring to overtake her, fate favored his efforts; brought to a standstill, at the edge of a torrent, the object of his pursuit. "Are you mad, Elise?" A shadow on his brow, the Marquis rode down. She made no reply; regarded only the water. "I hope it is not in your mind to attempt to cross," he went on, a shade of petulance in his accents. She urged her horse forward; it stopped. "Elise! I beg of you! It is dangerous; better go back, and around!"