J ;her;>with' ,a=newjoy., : She seemed to have been living an artificial life -mi the two years 'of her absence — to have been changed in her., very self by ...change of -sawouitdingsi; ; It ;was- : almost as ifthe old Vixen had been sent into aiv en chanted sleep, -while : some other young lady, a model of propriety and good. manners, went- about. .the. /world* in Vixen's \ shape. Her ', li!o ;. lyad teen made • up, ..more. or jess, of trifles, and foolishness, with a background of grand scenery. Tepid, little : friendships, with agreeable .fellow-travellers at ' Nice; tepid little friendships of fcho same.prder in Switzerland; • well-dressed young people smiling, at each other, and de lighting in eech other's 1 coin pany ;'; and parting, probably for ever, .without a pang. ■ ' : ' But now she had come back to. the friends, the horses, the dogs, the rooms, the gardens, the, fields,', the forests of youth, and was going to be the real Vixen again— the wild, thoughtless, high-spirited girl, whom Squire, Tem pest and all the peasantry round about had loved. 'I have been ludiculously' wall-be haved,' she .said to herself, 'quite a second edition of mamma ; but now I am back in the. Forest, my good man ners may go hang. My foot's on my native heath and my name is Mac- Gregor.' Somehow in all her thoughts of home —after that bnrst of grief for her dead father— Roderick Vawdrey was the central figure. lie filled the gap cruel death had made. Would Rorie come soon to see her? Would he be very glad to have her at home again 1 What would he think of her? Would ho fancy her changed 1 For the worse 1 For the better 1 ' [ wonder whether he would like my good manners, or the original Vixen, best f she speculated. The morning wore on, and still Violet Tempest sat idly by the fire. She had made up her mind that Roderick would come and see her at once. She was sufficiently, aware of her own import ance to feel sure that the fact of her return had been duly chronicled in the local papers. 