"Do I look as though I should be in earnest in what I am about to speak?"
"I should judge so."
"Then listen, and don't take your eyes off mine until I am done speaking!"
"Very well, don't be long, though, for it rather agitates me."
"I will not! Hear me, then! You say that you decline to challenge Le Noir. Very good! I, on my part, here renounce all acquaintance with you! I will never sit down at the same table—enter the same room, or breathe the same air with you—never speak to you—listen to you, or recognize you in any manner, until my deep wrongs are avenged in the punishment of my slanderer, so help me——"
"Hush-sh! don't swear, Cap—it's profane and unwomanly; and nothing on earth but broken oaths would be the result!"
But Cap was off! In an instant she was down in the yard, where her groom was holding her horse, ready in case she wished to take her usual ride.
"Where is Mr. John Stone?" she asked.
"Down at the kennels, miss," answered the boy.
She jumped into her saddle, put whip to her horse and flew over the ground between the mansion house and the kennels.