nclusion that he
had done with altogether. It was comforting to feel that he could
sleep as long as he liked, and then rise and dress himself in whole,
dry garments, while there was also a certain satisfaction in sitting
down to a daintily laid and well-spread table when he remembered how
often he had dragged himself back to his tent almost too worn out to
cook his evening meal. On the whole, he was glad that Acton had urged
him to remain another week or two.

Then he became interested as a girl stepped out of one of the lighted
windows some little distance away, and, without noticing him, leaned
upon the veranda balustrade. The smile in her eyes, he fancied,
suggested a certain satisfaction at the fact that what she had done
had irritated somebody. Why it should do so he did not know, but it
certainly conveyed that impression. In another minute a man appeared
in the portico, and the manner in which he moved forward, after he had
glanced along the veranda, was more suggestive still. The girl who
leaned on the balustrade no doubt saw him, and she walked towards
Nasmyth, whom, apparently, she had now seen for the first time.
Nasmyth thought he understood the reason for this, and, though it was
not exactly flattering to himself, he smiled as he rose and drew
forward another chair. He believed most of Mrs. Acton's guests were
acquainted with the fact that he was an impecunious dam-builder.

The girl, who sat down in the chair he offered, smiled when he flung
his half-smoked cigar away, and Nasmyth laughed as he saw the twinkle
in her eyes, for he had stopped smoking with a half-conscious
reluctance.

"It really was a pity, especially as I wouldn't have minded in the
least," she observed.

Nasmyth glanced along the veranda, and saw that the man, who had
discovered that there was not another chair available, was standing
still, evidently irresolute. Probably he recognized that it would be
difficult to preserve a becoming ease of manner in attempting to force
his company upon two persons who were not anxious for it, and were
sitting down. Nasmyth looked at the girl and prepared to undertake the
part that he supposed she desired him to play. She was attired in what
he would have described as modified evening dress, and her arms and
neck gleamed with an ivory whiteness in the moonlight. She was slight
in form, and curiously dainty as well as pretty. Her hair was black,
and she had eyes that matched it, for they were dark an