. She did not know what to make of him.

'I thought you had left,' she stammered. 'You have not been dancing?'

'No, I have not been dancing,' he repeated.

'I will come back to you soon, mamma,' she said, and she put her hand
on his arm, and moved away with him.

'The fact is,' said he, 'I don't like much being introduced to
strangers. Most girls stare at you so, with a sort of hold-off air,
and it is so difficult to get on pleasant and friendly terms with them.'

'I should not have thought you were so shy,' said Nan, with an honest
laugh.

He flushed a little, and said--

'If you've lived most of your life on board ship, you may feel a little
bit awkward; but mind,' he added with some eagerness, 'sometimes, not
often (once in half a dozen years, maybe), you meet with a girl who is
quite different from the others, quite different. You know it at once
from her manner, and you can make friends with her with the greatest
ease, simply because she is intelligent and quick in appreciation, and
not affected in her ways, or stiff.'

This eager encomium passed upon an imaginary person struck Nan as being
somewhat out of place; for the waltz had already begun, and she wanted
to get back to her mamma: whereas this Lieutenant King seemed to wish
to stand there and talk to her.

'Of course, that's special good luck for a sailor,' said he with a
smile, 'to be able to make friends in a short time; for it's only a
short time he has. Ashore to-day, and off to-morrow again; and what's
worse, out of sight out of mind.'

'Oh, not always,' said Nan, cheerfully.

'Oh yes, it is,' he said; 'people on shore are too much concerned among
themselves to think about the people away at sea. Why, you yourself
now; after you leave this house to-night you will completely forget
that there are such things as either ships or sailors until you come
back here to another ball, and then the bunting will remind you.'

'Now there you are quite wrong,' said she firmly, 'for I see ships and
sailors every day of my life.'

'Why, how is that?' he exclaimed with great interest.

'We live in Brighton,' said Nan simply, 'and I walk a good deal along
the downs towards Newhaven, you know. The ships are a good way off,
generally; still, you watch them, and you are interested in them.'

'You walk along the downs between Brighton and Newhaven?' he said, as
if that was an extraordinary matter. 'Alone?'

'Usually.'

'When I am passing I will lo