w piece on the board, and checked them. Thus, if they
provoked a challenge from me, they brought the destructive odour of
powder about the headstrong creature's name. I was therefore of use to
him so far. I leaned indolently across the rails of the promenade while
she bent and chattered in his ear, and her attendant cousin and cavalier
chewed vexation in the form of a young mustachio's curl. His horse
fretted; he murmured deep notes, and his look was savage; but he was
bound to wait on her, and she would not go until it suited her pleasure.
She introduced him to me--as if conversation could be carried on between
two young men feeling themselves simply pieces on the board, one giving
check, and the other chafing under it! I need not say that I disliked my
situation. It was worse when my father took to bowing to her from a
distance, unobservant of her hand's prompt pull at the reins as soon as
she saw him. Lady Wilts had assumed the right of a woman still possessing
attractions to exert her influence with him on behalf of the family, for
I had done my best to convince her that he entertained no serious thought
of marrying, and decidedly would not marry without my approval. He acted
on her advice to discourage the wilful girl.

'How is it I am so hateful to you?' Miss Penrhys accosted me abruptly. I
fancied she must have gone mad, and an interrogative frown was my sole
answer.

'Oh! I hear that you pronounce me everywhere unendurable,' she continued.
'You are young, and you misjudge me in some way, and I should be glad if
you knew me better. By-and-by, in Wales.--Are you fond of mountain
scenery? We might be good friends; my temper is not bad--at least, I hope
not. Heaven knows what one's relatives think of one. Will you visit us? I
hear you have promised your confidante, Lady Wilts.'

At a dancing party where we met, she was thrown on my hands by her
ungovernable vehemence, and I, as I had told Lady Wilts, not being able
to understand the liking of twenty for forty (fifty would have been
nearer the actual mark, or sixty), offered her no lively sympathy. I
believe she had requested my father to pay public court to her. If
Captain DeWitt was to be trusted, she desired him to dance, and dance
with her exclusively, and so confirm and defy the tattle of the town; but
my father hovered between the dowagers. She in consequence declined to
dance, which was the next worse thing she could do. An aunt, a miserable
woman, was on he