As a man and a brother I beg you'll do so, and let me ride as I like."
"Suppose you ask Annon to join you--" began Treherne with well-assumed
indifference; but Sir Jasper frowned and turned sharply on him, saying,
half-petulantly, half-jocosely:
"Upon my life I should think I was a boy or a baby, by the manner in
which you mount guard over me today. If you think I'm going to live in
daily fear of some mishap, you are all much mistaken. Ghost or no ghost,
I shall make merry while I can; a short life and a jolly one has always
been my motto, you know, so fare you well till dinnertime."
They watched him gallop down the avenue, and then went their different
ways, still burdened with a nameless foreboding. Octavia strolled into
the conservatory, thinking to refresh herself with the balmy silence
which pervaded the place, but Annon soon joined her, full of a lover's
hopes and fears.
"Miss Treherne, I have ventured to come for my answer. Is my New Year to
be a blissful or a sad one?" he asked eagerly.
"Forgive me if I give you an unwelcome reply, but I must be true, and so
regretfully refuse the honor you do me," she said sorrowfully.
"May I ask why?"
"Because I do not love you."
"And you do love your cousin," he cried angrily, pausing to watch her
half-averted face.
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