of love, in the heart, my dear."

"Well, I'm glad I'm not that fourth person, _in petto_, or in anything
else, as I should not like to be a scandal."

"No fear of that, charming Mabel; for were you the fourth, all the
others would be forgotten, and your wonderful beauty and merit would at
once elevate you to be the first. No fear of your being the fourth in
any thing."

"There is consolation in that assurance, Mr. Muir," said Mabel,
laughing, "whatever there may be in your other assurance; for I confess
I should prefer being even a fourth-rate beauty to being a fourth wife."

So saying she tripped away, leaving the Quartermaster to meditate on his
success. Mabel had been induced to use her female means of defence thus
freely, partly because her suitor had of late been so pointed as to
stand in need of a pretty strong repulse, and partly on account of his
innuendoes against Jasper and the Pathfinder. Though full of spirit
and quick of intellect, she was not naturally pert; but on the present
occasion she thought circumstances called for more than usual decision.
When she left her companion, therefore, she believed she was now finally
released from attentions which she thought as ill-bestowed as they were
certainly disagreeable. Not so, however, with David Muir; accustomed to
rebuffs, and familiar with the virtue of perseverance, he saw no reason
to despair, though the half-menacing, half-self-satisfied manner in
which he shook his head towards the retreating girl might have betrayed
designs as sinister as they were determined. While he was thus occupied,
the Pathfinder approached, and got within a few feet of him unseen.

"'Twill never do, Quartermaster, 'twill never do," commenced the latter,
laughing in his noiseless way; "she is young and active, and none but a
quick foot can overtake her. They tell me you are her suitor, if you are
not her follower."

"And I hear the same of yourself, man, though the presumption would be
so great that I scarcely can think it true."

"I fear you're right, I do; yes, I fear you're right;--when I consider
myself, what I am, how little I know, and how rude my life has been, I
altogether distrust my claim, even to think a moment of one so tutored,
and gay, and light of heart, and delicate--"

"You forget handsome," coarsely interrupted Muir.

"And handsome, too, I fear," returned the meek and self-abased guide;
"I might have said handsome at once, among her other qualities; for