About her lay a narrow strip of young maples and beyond this the wide park road wound at the foot of a steep wooded cliff.

The place was perfectly quiet save for the splash and babble of the creek.
Several minutes passed.

Once she heard her groom speak to the horses, though she could not see him, but the charm of the place held her.

She raised her eyes from the tumbling water before her and looked off through the maple tangle.

Then she drew back quickly, and clasped her riding-crop tightly.