, put with a look which seemed to me inquisitive and
impertinent. I did not know how to answer it, and left it unanswered;
and the captain and I had the rest of our dance out in silence.
Meanwhile, I could not help watching Faustina. She was so very
handsome, with a marked, dashing sort of beauty that I saw was
prodigiously admired. She took no notice of me, and barely touched the
tips of my fingers with her glove as we passed in the dance.

As he was leading me back to Mrs. Sandford, the captain stooped his
head to mine. "Forgive me," he whispered. "So much gentleness cannot
bear revenge. I am only a soldier."

"Forgive you what, sir?" I asked. And he drew up his head again, half
laughed, muttered that I was worse than grape or round shot, and
handed me over to my guardian.

"My dear Daisy," said Mrs. Sandford, "If you were not so sweet as you
are, you would be a queen. There, now, do not lift up your grey eyes
at me like that, or I shall make you a reverence the first thing I do,
and fancy that I am one of your _dames d'honneur_. Who is next? Major
Banks? Take care, Daisy, or you'll do some mischief."

I had not time to think about her words; the dances went forward, and
I took my part in them with great pleasure until the tattoo summons
broke us up. Indeed, my pleasure lasted until we got home to the
hotel, and I heard Mrs. Sandford saying, in an aside to her husband,
amid some rejoicing over me--"I was dreadfully afraid she wouldn't
go." The words, or something in them, gave me a check. However, I had
too many exciting things to think of to take it up just then, and my
brain was in a whirl of pleasure till I went to sleep.

CHAPTER XVII.

OBEYING ORDERS.

As I shared Mrs. Sandford's room, of course I had very scant
opportunities of being by myself. In the delightful early mornings I
was accustomed to take my book, therefore, and go down where I had
gone the first morning, to the rocks by the river's side. Nobody came
by that way at so early an hour; I had been seen by nobody except that
one time, when Thorold and his companion passed me; and I felt quite
safe. It was pleasanter down there than can be told. However sultry
the air on the heights above, so near the water there was always a
savour of freshness; or else I fancied it, in the hearing of the soft
liquid murmur of the little wavelets against the shore. But sometimes
it was so still I could hear nothing of that; then birds and insects,
or the