y on so
slight an acquaintance, and it has been to me an unspeakable relief to
do it."

"I am proud to think you had that confidence in me."

"You yourself suggested it. You began to tell me of your plans and
hopes, and I could not resist the temptation to follow you. A French
hussar is about as outspoken an animal as an English sailor, so that we
were well met."

"Are you still in the service?"

"No; I am in what we call _disponibilite_, I am free till called
on--and free then if I feel unwilling to go back."

The Frenchman now passed on to speak of his life as a soldier,--a
career so full of strange adventures and curious incidents that Jack was
actually grieved when they glided into the harbor of Holyhead, and the
steamer's bell broke up the narrative.

CHAPTER XX. A MORNING OF PERPLEXITIES.

Colonel Bramleigh turned over and over, without breaking the seal, a
letter which, bearing the postmark of Rome and in a well-known hand, he
knew came from Lady Augusta.

That second marriage of his had been a great mistake. None of the social
advantages he had calculated on with such certainty bad resulted from
it. His wife's distinguished relatives had totally estranged themselves
from her, as though she had made an unbecoming and unworthy alliance;
his own sons and daughters had not concealed their animosity to their
new stepmother; and, in fact, the best compromise the blunder admitted
of was that they should try to see as little as possible of each other;
and as they could not obliterate the compact, they should, as far as in
them lay, endeavor to ignore it.

There are no more painful aids to a memory unwilling to be taxed than a
banker's half-yearly statement; and in the long record which Christmas
had summoned, and which now lay open before Bramleigh's eyes, were
frequent and weighty reminders of Lady Augusta's expensive ways.

He had agreed to allow her a thousand napoleons--about eight hundred
pounds--quarterly, which was, and which she owned was, a most liberal
and sufficient sum to live on alone, and in a city comparatively cheap.
He had, however, added, with a courtesy that the moment of parting might
have suggested, "Whenever your tastes or your comforts are found to be
hampered in any way by the limits I have set down, you will do me the
favor to draw directly on 'the house,' and I will take care that your
checks shall be attended to."

The smile with which she thanked him was still in his memor