uld solicited an interview
with Gerty, he had dressed with more than his usual care, and wore his
softest, oiliest smile.

"O Gerty," he cried, "I'm _de_lighted beyond measure! How beautiful you
look to-night! No star in all the firmament half so radiant as your
eyes; no rose that ever bloomed could rival the blush on your cheek!"

Sir Digby had practised this little speech for half-an-hour in front of
the glass while waiting for Gerty.

The girl didn't seem to hear him; or if she did, she did not heed. He
led her passive to a seat, and drew his own chair nearer to hers than
ever he had sat before.

There was a sad kind of expression in Gerty's face, and a far-away look
in her bonnie blue eyes.

If Mary, her maid, had only held her silly tongue, Gerty might have been
almost happy now. But Mary hadn't held her tongue, but conjured up
Jack, and he was before her mental eyes at this very moment just as she
had seen him last, the young and handsome lieutenant, going away to
fight for king and country with a heart burning with courage and valour,
yet filled with love for her--and with hope. Ah yes! that was the worst
of it. They were not betrothed, and yet--and yet when he returned and
found her engaged to another, it would break his heart. Yes, that was
simply what it would do. What was Sir Digby saying? Oh, he had been
talking for ten minutes and more, yet not one word had she heard. Nor
had she even turned towards him. She did so at last, blushing and
embarrassed at what she deemed the rudeness of her inattention.

Digby misinterpreted her.

"Yes, yes," he cried rapturously; "I read my happy fate in those dear
downcast eyes and in that tell-tale blush. You love me, Gerty; you love
me, all unworthy as I am. Then behold I throw myself at your feet."

Sir Digby was preparing to suit the action to his words; but this was
not so easy to do as might be imagined, for this gay Lothario had
lately suffered from a slight rheumatic stiffness of the joints. He had
already bent one knee painfully, and it had emitted a disagreeable crack
which certainly tended to dispel a portion of the romance from the
situation, when sturdy footsteps were heard outside, and next moment the
round, rosy face of Richards, of the firm of Griffin, Keane, and Co.,
appeared smiling in the doorway.

Gerty sprang up, leaving her lover to recover the perpendicular as best
he might. She rushed towards the old man and fairly hugged him.

"Confound it