"The service you have rendered me is beyond all words." An hour later Sybilla went slowly back to her room.

She had breakfasted _tete-a-tete_ with my lady and her daughter, while Sir Everard, in scarlet coat and cord and tops, had mounted his bonny bay and ridden off to Lady Louise and the fox-hunt, and to his fate, though he knew it not.
"Really, Mildred," my lady said, "a most delightful young person, truly.

Do you know, if she does not succeed in finding her friends I should like to retain her as a companion ?" In her own room Sybilla Silver stood before the glass, and she smiled back at her own image.
"So, my lady," she said, "you walk into the trap with your eyes open, too--you who are old enough to know better?
My handsome face and black eyes and smooth tongue stand me in their usual good stead.

And I saved Sir Everard Kingsland's life! Poor fools! A thousand times better for you all if I had let that midnight assassin shoot him down like a dog!".