It did not seem such a dreadful thing, either, to any one but Lelia, for the young girl to declare she was just dying for a ride on Saint, and wished Mr. Willoughby would come with her on Satan. Laurie assented with pleasure. It never occurred to his mind that Lelia could find fault over such a trifle. So he cheerfully helped Zaidee up to a seat on Saint’s back, and, vaulting lightly into his own saddle, away they went for a delightful canter over the mountain road. When they returned they found Lelia gone. Mrs. Thurston said she had been taken suddenly ill, and had asked Warren Beihl to drive her in the buggy back to The Crags. Laurie, as in duty bound, made his excuses to the gay company, and galloped away with a grave face, following his betrothed home. Significant smiles and shruggings of shoulders greeted his departure, and Bessie Hall, the vivacious brunette beauty, remarked: “A nice row you have raised, Zaidee, by going off with Miss Ritchie’s lover! Her brow was as black as a thunder-cloud, and I think she could willingly murder you!” “Oh, dear, I never meant any harm. Did she care, really?” cried the petite coquette. “She was furious--she could not hide it, and kept glowering at the road you went, watching for your return. Every one could see that she was trying to keep down an attack of hysteria, and at last she could stand it no longer, so she got Warren Beihl to take her home, and, oh, won’t Laurie Willoughby catch it as soon as he gets there, poor fellow!” “I am very sorry, but she ought not to be so jealous--if I were engaged to him, and he went for a ride with another girl, I shouldn’t consider it a hanging matter!” laughed merry little Zaidee. “Oh, she will just pout a while, then they will kiss and make up,” said Geoffrey Graves. “How do you know?” asked Irene Mays. “Oh, I’ve been there myself,” he replied slangily, turning the laugh on himself, and then they proceeded to enjoy themselves. Warren Beihl returning presently with a message from Lelia to that effect. “Did she find it necessary to call in the doctor?” they asked, with gentle sarcasm. “Oh, no; not while I was there. She dismissed me as soon as we reached The Crags, telling me she would go and lie down till she felt better. As I met her recreant knight hurrying to her side, I presume her convalescence will not be long delayed,” he returned laughingly. They all persisted in treating it as a little joke, and in bantering Zaidee on the lovers’ quarrel she had brought about; but while they amused themselves in the grove, Laurie Willoughby was going through a very unpleasant scene at The Crags. When he had sent up to Lelia’s room, to ask after her health, she had hurried down to him in a towering rage. Bitterly, hysterically she upbraided her lover for his imagined falsity, charging him with having transferred his love to a designing little coquette. His short ride with little Zaidee was magnified into a heinous offense against Lelia’s rights.