“That’s the thing to do.  Let us go to the inn and have dinner,” said
Stanley.  “It’s two hours past dinner time now, and I’m almost famished. 
We’ll have a famous dinner.  Come, cousin,” said he, addressing Dorothy. 
“We’ll have kidneys and tripe and—­”

“We do not want dinner,” said Dorothy.  “We must return home at once.  Sir Malcolm, will you order Dawson to bring out the coach?”

We went to the inn parlor, and I, loath to do so, left the ladies with Stanley and his horse-boy friend while I sought Dawson for the purpose of telling him to fetch the coach with all haste.

“We have not dined,” said the forester.

“We shall not dine,” I answered.  “Fetch the coach with all the haste you can make.”  The bystanders in the tap-room were listening, and I continued, “A storm is brewing, and we must hasten home.”

True enough, a storm was brewing.

When I left Dawson, I hurriedly found John and told him we were preparing to leave the inn, and that we would expect him to overtake us on the road to Rowsley.

I returned to the ladies in the parlor and found them standing near the window.  Stanley had tried to kiss Dorothy, and she had slapped his face.  Fortunately he had taken the blow good-humoredly, and was pouring into her unwilling ear a fusillade of boorish compliments when.  I entered the parlor.

I said, “The coach is ready.”

The ladies moved toward the door.  “I am going to ride with you, my beauty,” said his Lordship.

“That you shall not do,” retorted Dorothy, with blazing eyes.

“That I will do,” he answered.  “The roads are free to all, and you cannot keep me from following you.”

Dorothy was aware of her predicament, and I too saw it, but could find no way out of it.  I was troubled a moment; but my fear was needless, for Dorothy was equal to the occasion.

“We should like your company, Cousin Stanley,” replied Dorothy, without a trace of anger in her manner, “but we cannot let you ride with us in the face of the storm that is brewing.”

“We won’t mind the storm, will we, Tod?  We are going with our cousin.”

“If you insist upon being so kind to us,” said Dorothy, “you may come.  But I have changed my mind about dinner.  I am very hungry, and we accept your invitation.”

“Now you are coming around nicely,” said Lord James, joyfully.  “We like that, don’t we, Tod?”

Tod had been silent under all circumstances.

Dorothy continued:  “Madge and I will drive in the coach to one or two of the shops, and we shall return in one hour.  Meantime, Cousin Stanley, we wish you to have a fine dinner prepared for us, and we promise to do ample justice to the fare.”

“She’ll never come back,” said silent Tod, without moving a muscle.

“How about it, cousin?” asked Stanley.  “Tod says you’ll never come back; he means that you are trying to give us the slip.”