You are able to ride, and I promised to coax you out to-morrow, if the day is fine.

I shall not take a refusal," she continued, as he shook his head.

"I am getting quite vain of my horsemanship.

I shall feel quite proud of your escort, even if I have to tease for it; so, remember, you are mine for a part of to-morrow." She drew her hand from his, and with another of her radiant smiles, swept from the room, leaving him in a maze of blissful bewilderment.
Never till this morning had a hope entered Hugh's heart that Alice Johnson might be won.

Except her, there was not a girl in all the world who had ever awakened the slightest emotion within his heart, and Alice had seemed so far removed from him that to dream of her was worse than useless.