rum, old bachelor
in his Majesty's service; and here he was, how or why he did not well
know, galloping away at daybreak with a foreign lady, of whose
existence he had been ignorant a week before, with the prospect of
being apprehended by her relatives for her abduction, and incarcerated
by the Government for assisting in the escape of a smuggler. When at
length roused to complete consciousness by the rapidity of their
motion, he positively groaned in anguish of spirit, and vowed
internally that, once within the shelter of his own quiet quarters,
nothing on earth should again tempt him forth on such harum-scarum
expeditions.

It was near noon when they reached Algeciras, where they stopped to
breakfast, both of them rather exhausted with fatigue and hunger. This
town stands just opposite Gibraltar, across the bay--the road they had
come by forms the base of a triangle, of which Cabrita Point is the
apex, the bay washing one side of the projecting coast, the Straits
the other. The Major was reserved and embarrassed; there was a
tenderness about Carlota's manner that frightened him out of his usual
gallantry, and, to avoid meeting her glance, he looked steadily out of
the window at the rock of Gibraltar, casting wistful glances at the
spot where his quarters lay hidden in a little clump of foliage.
Immediately after the meal he quitted the room, on pretence of looking
after the horses. He determined to protract their stay in Algeciras
till late in the afternoon, that they might enter Gibraltar in the
dusk, and thus avoid awkward meetings with equestrian parties from the
garrison, who would then be hastening homewards, in order to be in
before gun-fire, when the gates are shut.

On returning, still out of temper, to the room where he had left
Carlota, he found her, quite overcome with fatigue, asleep on the
sofa. Her head was thrown a little back on the cushion; her lips were
just parted, and she looked in her sleep like a weary child. The Major
approached on tiptoe, and stood regarding her. His ill-humour melted
fast into pity. He thought of all her kindness to him, and, by a
sudden soft-hearted impulse, took gently one of her hands projecting
over the side of the sofa. Carlota opened her eyes, and squeezed the
hand that held hers; whereupon the Major suddenly quitted his hold,
and, retreating with great discomposure to the window, did not venture
to look at her again till it was time to resume their journey.

At a li