I returned home in the gentleman's carriage.
"Now the worst of it is," said Minnie, with a piteous look, "that the person who stopped the horse called to inquire after me the next day.
Lady Shrewsbury, like an old goose, was awfully civil to him; and so there I was! His name is Captain Kirby, and I wish there were no captains in the world.

The life he led me! He used to call, and I had to go out riding with him, and old Lady Shrewsbury utterly neglected me; and so, you know, Kitty darling, he at last, you know, of course, proposed.

That's what they all do, you know, when they save your life.
Always! It's awful!" Minnie heaved a sigh, and sat apparently meditating on the enormous baseness of the man who saved a lady's life and then proposed; and it was not until Mrs.Willoughby had spoken twice that she was recalled to herself.
"What did you tell him ?" was her sister's question.
"Why, what could I tell him ?" "What!" cried Mrs.Willoughby; "you don't--" "Now, Kitty, I think it's very unkind in you, when I want all your sympathy, to be _so_ horrid." "Well, tell it your own way, Minnie dearest." Minnie sat for a time regarding vacancy with a soft, sad, and piteous expression in her large blue eyes; with her head also a little on one side, and her delicate hands gently clasped in front of her.
[Illustration: "ANOTHER MAN!"] "You see, Kitty darling, he took me out riding, and--he took me to the place where I had met him, and then he proposed.

Well, you know, I didn't know what to say.

He was _so_ earnest, and _so_ despairing.