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for forfeiting the race. And if you were
to shoot his lordship, you would have to leave England
forever, and I would miss you, Stacy." She regarded
him intently, her eyes dark with feeling.
    "Would you-would you really miss me, Julie?" he
cried, the pain in his nose forgotten.
    "Of course," she said briskly. "Quite awfully. What
a pity you never learned to drive properly! If you
had, you might take Cary's place and beat Lord Swale
at his own game."
    "I'm afraid I would only disgrace myself," he said
ruefully. "Worse yet, I might damage your brother's
chestnuts. Then my crime would throw Swale's perfidy quite into the shade!"
    Juliet smiled thinly. "Cary will owe a great deal of
money, I suppose. What was the wager?"
    "Now, look here," he protested. "Leave all that
to me."
    "How much?" she said, tapping her foot. "How
much, or I swear I shall never call you Stacy again!"
    "Five hundred pounds," he said weakly.
    "Good Lord!" she whispered, horrified. "Why are
men such fools? For five hundred pounds, I could
have a gown encrusted with diamonds and pearls. Encrusted, I tell you!"
    "I should be happy to pay Lord Swale," he said
uncertainly.
    "Indeed?" she murmured. "You must have a stomach lined with copper! The thought of paying him a
farthing, let alone a monkey, makes me positively ill.
Still, we must pay him his money, the nasty cheat." She
stood up abruptly, and he correctly interpreted this
as his dismissal. She extended her hand to him, and, to her surprise, he bent over it and kissed it. They had
always shaken hands before.

    "I think you are quite fuddled, Stacy," she remarked
as she walked with him as far as the stairs. "Go home
and go to bed. And you needn't trouble yourself
about the money. I'll send Bernard 'round with it. The
Black Lantern Inn, you said? Seven o'clock? You can
see yourself out, can't you?"
    Before he could answer, she was already dashing
toward the staircase that led to the third story of the
town house, where the bedrooms were located, leaving him to make his way down to the front door on
his own. "Good night, Julie," he called after her.
    "'Night, Stacy," she called back carelessly, and Stacy
realized that, whatever had happened to his own
heart that night, her feelings for him remained
unchanged.
    When the surgeon arrived shortly thereafter, he
found that not only was Cary's arm broken in two
places, but several ribs were cracked as well. "Mr.
Calverstock thinks they weren't trying to kill him,
Mr. Norton," Juliet told him, blinking back tears.
"What do you think?"
    "I've seen better looking corpses, Miss Wayborn,"
the surgeon replied grimly. "But Mr. Cary won't give
in so easily," he added with an encouraging smile.
"He's a Wayborn, isn't he?"
    When he had gone, Juliet dried her eyes and instructed the footman to ask Bernard, Gary's groom,
to come up from the stables.
    Tom was shocked. "Oh, he wouldn't come into
the house, Miss Julie! He'd have to be dragged in
chains, and even then, he'd say it wasn't right for a
stableboy to set foot in the house."
    "Nonsense," said Juliet. "Tell Bernard if he doesn't come to me at once, I shall be forced to go down to
the stables in my nightgown and bare feet."

    This threat was enough to bring the reluctant
groom not only into the house, but up the stairs to
Miss Juliet's bedroom, where the young lady showed
him the battered body of his unconscious master.
    "Good God almighty!" the Irishman breathed,
crossing himself. "I never thought I'd live to see the
young master lying so still and the breath of him rattling like the wind through the trees."
    "Listen to me carefully, Bernard," she said. "A foul
insect called Lord Swale has done this to Master
Cary."
    "You don't say, Miss-and he a lordship!"
    "There was to have been a curricle race tomorrow. Our chestnuts, Bernard, against his lordship's
grays. Swale must have known he'd never beat my
brother honorably, so he hired two lowborn curs to
cripple him the