Raising the riding-whip which he had in his hand, he seized the wretched
creature once more, and brought the whip down again and again on his
almost skeleton body.
"Play me false, you hound, and I'll kill you," he almost hissed; and,
half beside himself with pain and rage, the jockey gasped brokenly:
"Stop! stop! I'll do it."
It was just five o'clock when Lady Constance and Leroy returned from
their ride. During the course of it Adrien had realised something of his
cousin's beauty of character, as well as of face. Until that day he had
only regarded her as a younger sister, pretty, perhaps, in a quiet,
retiring way, but nothing more. Now, as he lifted her down from the
saddle, he could have bent and reverently kissed the little foot that
lodged so lightly in the stirrup.
Woman-like, she was quick to notice the change in him, and her heart
beat high with hope.
"He will love me yet," she whispered to herself triumphantly, as, with
outward calmness, she bade him au revoir till they should meet at
dinner.
Adrien went straight to his own rooms. An unusual restlessness was upon
him, and his pulses throbbed wildly, but as yet he did not understand
what these things meant.
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