Page:The Black Moth.pdf/289

 “Now, my dear, pray do not tire yourself by going too far I doubt it will rain before long and you will catch your death of cold!”

Diana laughed at her.

“Oh, no, aunt! Why, the sky is almost cloudless! But we shall not be long, I promise you. Only as far as Crossdown Woods and back again.”

She gave her foot to the groom just as Mr. Beauleigh came out to watch her start.

“Really, my dear, I must ride with you to-morrow,” he told her. Tis an age since we have been out together.”

“Why, Papa, will you not accompany me this afternoon?” cried Diana eagerly. “I should so like it!”

It struck her aunt that Harper awaited the answer to this question rather anxiously. She watched him, puzzled. However, when Mr. Beauleigh had refused she could not see any change in his expression, and concluded that she must have been mistaken.

So with a wave of her hand, Diana rode away, the groom following at a respectful distance. Yet somehow Miss Betty was uneasy. A presentiment of evil seemed to touch her, and when the riders had disappeared round a bend in the road she felt an insane desire to run after them and call her niece back. She gave herself a little shake, saying that she was a fond old woman, over-anxious about Diana. Nevertheless, she laid a detaining hand on her brother’s arm as he was about to go indoors.

“Wait, Horace! You—you will ride with Di more frequently, will you not?”

He looked surprised.

“You are uneasy, Betty?”

“Oh—uneasy! Well, yes—a little. I do not like her to go alone with a groom, and we do not know this man.”

“My dear! I had the very highest references from Sir Hugh Grandison, who, I am sure, would never