er mv very eyes!"

"Madam," said he gravely, "among few accomplishments, permit me to say
I am a somewhat expert--er--needles-man."

Hereupon the apparition seated herself dexterously on the broad coping
of the wall and from that vantage surveyed him with eyes of cold
disparagement. And after she had regarded him thus for a long moment
she spoke 'twixt curling red lips:

"O, Gemini--I might have known it!"

At this the Major ruffled the curls of his great wig and regarded her
with some apprehension. At last he ventured a question:

"And pray madam, what might you have known concerning me?"

"A man who sews on his own buttons is a disgrace to his sex," she
answered.

"But how if he have no woman to do it for him?"

"He should be a man and--get one."

"Hum!" said the Major thoughtfully, "a needle is a sharp engine and apt
to prick one occasionally 'tis true, and yet a man may prefer it to a
woman."

"And you," she exclaimed, drooping disdainful lashes, "you--are
a--soldier!"

"I was!" he answered.

"Soldiers are gallant, they say."

"They are kind!" bowed the Major.

"You are, I think, the poor, old, wounded soldier Major d'Arcy who
lives at the Manor yonder?" she questioned.

"I am that shattered wreck, madam, and what remains of me is very
humbly at your service!" and setting hand to bosom of war-worn coat he
bowed with a prodigious flourish.

"And you have never been so extreme fortunate as to behold my Lady
Elizabeth Carlyon?"

"Hum!" said the Major, pondering, "what like is she?"

At this slender hands clasped each other, dark eyes upturned themselves
to translucent heaven and rounded bosom heaved ecstatic:

"O sir, she is extreme beautiful, 'tis said! She is a toast adored!
She is seen but to be worshipped! She hath wit, beauty and a thousand
accomplishments! She hath such an air! Such a killing droop of the
eyelash! She is--O, she is irresistible!"

"Indeed," said the Major, glancing up into the beautiful face above,
"the description is just, though something too limited, perhaps."

The eyes came back to earth and the Major in a flash:

"Then you have seen her, sir?"

"I'm sure of it."

"Then describe her--come!"

"Why, she is, I judge, neither too short nor too tall!"

"True!" nodded the apparition, gently acquiescent.

"Of a delicate slimness----"

"True--O, most true, sir!"

"Yet sufficiently--er--full and rounded!"

The dark eyes were veiled suddenly by down-droop