"You are a perfect ogre of a lover," cried she. "What a head of hair!"
"It never will keep in order," said Tom, pressing down the shaggy locks with both hands.
"Let them alone," said Elsie; "you look more like a lion that way; I like it."
She was gracious and playful as a kitten, but Tom's happiness was disturbed all too quickly by the entrance of Victoria, crying:
"Missis horse runned off wid her; but she y'arnt hurt; she's a comin' in de carriage."
Out of the room Tom and Elsie went, anxious to learn the full meaning of her words.
CHAPTER XLII.
THE RIDE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
The husband and wife galloped joyously on for miles and miles in the soft light of that delicious afternoon; with every step the gloom and the shadows seemed to lift themselves from each heart, till they were cordial and gay almost as Elsie herself.