re warmly than when I saw the letter shoot the
slope of the postoffice mouth. Aunt Dorothy undertook to communicate
assurances of my undying affection for him. As for Janet--Temple's
letter, in which he spoke of her avowed preference for Oriental
presents, and declared his intention of accumulating them on his
voyages, was a harpoon in her side. By means of it I worried and
terrified her until she was glad to have it all out before the squire.
What did he do? He said that Margery, her mother, was niggardly; a girl
wanted presents, and I did not act up to my duty; I ought to buy Turkey
and Tunis to please her, if she had a mind for them.

The further she was flattered the faster she cried; she had the face of
an old setter with these hideous tears. The squire promised her fifty
pounds per annum in quarterly payments, that she might buy what presents
she liked, and so tie herself to constancy. He said aside to me, as
if he had a knowledge of the sex--'Young ladies must have lots of
knickknacks, or their eyes 'll be caught right and left, remember that.'
I should have been delighted to see her caught. She talked of love in a
ludicrous second-hand way, sending me into fits of disgusted laughter.
On other occasions her lips were not hypocritical, and her figure
anything but awkward. She was a bold, plump girl, fond of male society.
Heriot enraptured her. I believed at the time she would have appointed
a year to marry him in, had he put the question. But too many women were
in love with Heriot. He and I met Kiomi on the road to the race-course
on the Southdowns; the prettiest racecourse in England, shut against
gipsies. A bare-footed swarthy girl ran beside our carriage and tossed
us flowers. He and a friend of his, young Lord Destrier, son of the
Marquis of Edbury, who knew my father well, talked and laughed with her,
and thought her so very handsome that I likewise began to stare, and I
suddenly called 'Kiomi!' She bounded back into the hedge. This was our
second meeting. It would have been a pleasant one had not Heriot and
Destrier pretended all sorts of things about our previous acquaintance.
Neither of us, they said, had made a bad choice, but why had we
separated? She snatched her hand out of mine with a grin of anger like
puss in a fury. We had wonderful fun with her. They took her to a great
house near the race-course, and there, assisted by one of the young
ladies, dressed her in flowing silks, and so passed her throu