She did not look like fainting, for her color was as brilliant as ever, but she kept her eyes shut while Alice held smelling salts to her nose, and Mark and Craig fanned her with their hats, the former envying the latter his position with his arm now entirely round her and her head on his shoulder. Suddenly Mark exclaimed: “There is a spring not far from here where I can get some water in my hat,” and he darted off in the direction of a clump of trees. Helen was perfectly quiet until Mark came back with his straw hat half full of water. Then she started up with a laugh and throwing back her head said, “I am all right now. It was a little touch of the heart, climbing the steep hill. I hope I haven’t made a lot of trouble.” She looked down at Craig still sitting on the stone wall, then at Mark holding his hat with the water dripping from it. From this she recoiled and held back her dress lest a drop should fall upon it. “I am awfully sorry about your hat. Do you think you have spoiled it?” she asked, giving him a look which she knew always did its work and which made Mark feel that the price of forty hats would scarcely pay for a look like that. He and Craig were greatly relieved at her recovery, and assisted her to the carriage, one on either side, while she made a protest against being helped, when she was perfectly able to walk by herself. “Did you ever have an attack like this before?” Alice asked. Helen gave her a warning look and answered, “Not exactly like this. My heart has troubled me some. Let us go home, please, before I do anything more that is foolish.” CHAPTER XVI. THE RETURN HOME. Mark put her into the carriage on the seat with Alice where she wished to sit. She had accomplished her object. She had made both men dance to her music and was satisfied to take a back seat and to admire the splendid view from the top of the hill. The river, the meadows, the ponds, the wooded hills and several distant villages were spread out before them in a grand panorama. “It is lovely and I am glad you brought us here,” Helen said, leaning from the carriage, more conscious of the admiration she was exciting than of the view for which she really cared but little. “I came this way to show it to you,” Mark said, “but I’ll never try it again with these blooded brutes.”