"That's hard luck," said Nevin, sympathetically. "Two weeks, I suppose."
"Yes—father'll have to stop for a bit at the Highwood House. I fancy he'll wish he were back in England!"
"Not if Miss Ogden will ride with me," observed the earl.
A curious light came into the girl's gray eyes.
"I could show your lordship a new trail every day for the two weeks, and at the end of the time I am sure you could not decide which to call the prettiest," she asserted.
"I dare say," assented the earl, eagerly; "but I would like to try."
"Oh, Miss Ogden will take good care of you," said Nevin. "And now, as you have two guides, if you will excuse me, I think I won't go on into Highwood. Your lordship's things will be sent over early in the morning. His lordship was so anxious to see you, St. John, that we couldn't even persuade him to mess with us to-night," he remarked, jocularly, to the Honorable Arthur. "And now I will turn back, I think. Good-bye!" He waved a gauntleted hand, and wheeling his horse set off at an easy canter for the fort.
A somewhat awkward constraint fell upon the three so left, which Miss Ogden dispelled by turning her horse toward Highwood, and riding on slightly ahead of the Honorable Arthur and his father. The earl gazed admiringly at her slim back.
"By gad, she's a beauty, Arthur, my deah boy, and she sits her horse perfectly."