His entrance made the gentleman move from the door and without speaking Idona swept past him to run down the passage towards the courtyard.
She passed the travelling carriage and, entering the stables on the other side, opened the stall where she had left Mercury.
Her heart was thumping and her breath was coming quickly as she pulled the horse away from the manger and turned him round ready to lead him out.
As she did so, somebody stood in the entrance to the stall and she saw that it was the gentleman she had just left.
She looked at him, her eyes very wide and frightened in her pale face.
For a moment neither of them spoke and then he said, still drawling but in a different tone from the one he had used before,
“Forgive me! I find that our duelling was quite unnecessary.”
Idona wi
