The glad look of welcome which leaped into her own eyes and flashed over her face told him how well he was beloved far better than any words could have done.

“Ray!” she exclaimed, in a joyous tone, as he drew rein beside her, and unhesitatingly laid her hand within the strong palm which he extended to her.

“My darling!” he returned, as he leaped to the ground, “this is an unexpected pleasure!  I hardly dared to hope that I should see you alone to-day.  How does it happen that you are so far from Hazeldean and walking?”

“Mrs. Montague had a few errands which she wished me to do for her in the village,” Mona explained.

“Could she not have arranged for you to ride?” Ray asked, with a frown, and flushing to have his dear one’s comfort so ignored.

“Oh, I do not mind the walk in the least,” she hastened to say.  “The morning is very lovely, and I am glad, on the whole, for I should have missed you if I had ridden.”

“True, I saw you just as you were leaving Hazeldean, and so came after you,” Ray returned, smiling.

They were just entering Rhinebeck now, and Mona looked anxiously up and down the street.

She feared that some of the other guests at Hazeldean might be about and see her with Ray if they should go through the place together.

He was quick to note the anxiety, and to understand its cause.

“How long will it take you to make your purchases, Mona?” he inquired, looking at his watch.

“Half an hour, perhaps,” she replied.

“Well, then, I will leave you here, for a little trot about the country, and meet you again at this spot at the end of thirty minutes.  I cannot resist the temptation to have a little chat with you on the way home,” Ray returned, and, with another fond pressure of the hand, he leaped again upon his horse and galloped away.

With a rapidly beating heart and flushed cheeks, Mona hurried on her way.  She made her purchases with all possible dispatch, then, as she had a few minutes to spare, she slipped into a hot-house, where flowers were cultivated for the city market, and bought a bunch of white violets, and a few sprays of heliotrope, then she turned her footsteps back toward Hazeldean.

She had hardly reached the spot where she had parted from Ray, when she heard him coming in the distance.

He joined her in another moment, and springing from the saddle, he threw the bridle-rein over his arm and walked beside her, leading his horse.

They had not proceeded far when they came to a place where another road appeared to branch off from the road they were on.

“Let us turn here,” Ray said.  “I have been exploring while you were in the village, and I found that this is a kind of lane, hedged on either side with a thick growth of pines, and leads back to the main road farther on.  It is a little roundabout, but we shall not be likely to meet any one whom we know, and we shall feel far more freedom.”