ers
from the gentlemen who stood about. Selecting those whose weight and
balance commended themselves most to my purpose, I cleared a small
space, and having sent a serving man for a pack of cards, chose a five
spot and pinned it to a tree. Standing back some ten to fifteen paces,
I cast the four knives at the corner pips in quick succession, piercing
them truly, then paused a minute and cast the fifth knife at the
center, striking accurately between the other four. It was an act of
idle vanity, yet I hated for Jerome to taunt me on the way home.

By these petty means I gained a cheap applause from the belles and
gallants at Sceaux, and Jerome opened not his lips to jibe me, as I
feared, but like the rest, applauded.

I had now quite regained my courage, but for the girl. I loved to
think of her as but a girl; that she was also a wife I barred out of
our castle in Spain. Why should I be afraid of such a timid child?
Verily, I knew not.

My folly had one result I could not then foresee; it told some of those
present, whose hand it was had cast the hunting knife which struck
Yvard. I did not learn this for days after.

The approving and pleased look on the little lady's face fired me with
an insane desire to further win her notice, whereat I chided myself for
a vain coxcomb, and drew imperceptibly away from the company, until I
gained a shady and secluded walk which led to a retired nook
overlooking the valley.

The quietude of the evening's close jarred on my turbulence of spirit.
For the first time a woman's voice lingered in my ears after her speech
was done, a woman's smile played as the fitful summer's lightning
before my eyes. Oh, fool, fool! What place had women in a soldier's
life. What a discordant harmony would one angel create amid the rough
denizens of Biloxi. So I reasoned, forgetful that reasons never yet
convinced the heart.

CHAPTER XVI

THE UNEXPECTED

As one who pauses at the threshold of some fabled palace of the houri,
so did I stop, bewildered by the beauty of this virgin field of love,
by fancy decked with blossoms, now spreading all the allurements of
fetterless imaginings before me. A sudden whiff brought me the perfume
of her presence, and, turning, she appeared before me, whether in the
spirit or the flesh, I could hardly tell, so transported was I by the
swift changes of my thought, merging beauties ever new, ever sparkling,
with those scarce tasted ones but just disc