"
All this time Ormiston had been leading his own horse by the
bridle, and as Sir Norman silently complied with this suggestion,
in five minutes more they were in their saddles, and galloping at
breakneck speed toward the city. To tell the truth, one was not
more inclined for silence than the other, and the profoundest and
thoughtfulest silence was maintained till they reached it. One
was thinking of Leoline, the other of La Masque, and both were
badly in love, and just at that particular moment very happy. Of
course the happiness of people in that state never lasts longer
than half an hour at a stretch, and then they are plunged back
again into misery and distraction; but while it does last, it in,
very intense and delightful indeed.
Our two friends having drained the bitten, had got to the bottom
of the cup, and neither knew that no sooner were the sweets
swallowed, than it was to be replenished with a doubly-bitter
dose. Neither of them dismounted till they reached the house of
Leoline, and there Sir Norman secured his horse, and looked up at
it with a beating heart. Not that it was very unusual for his
heart to beat, seeing it never did anything else; but on that
occasion its motion was so mush accelerated, that any doctor
feeling his pulse might have justly set him down as a bad case of
heart-disease.
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