ers.

"I suppose you were surprised to see us rushing out here so suddenly,"
she observed in the course of the repast. "We had said nothing about
it when you last saw us, and I believe we are supposed to tell you
everything, ain't we? I certainly have told you a great many things, and
there are some of them I hope you have n't repeated. I have no doubt
you have told them all over Paris, but I don't care what you tell in
Paris--Paris is n't so easily shocked. Captain Lovelock does n't repeat
what I tell him; I set him up as a model of discretion. I have told him
some pretty bad things, and he has liked them so much he has kept them
all to himself. I say my bad things to Captain Lovelock, and my good
things to other people; he does n't know the difference and he is
perfectly content."

"Other people as well often don't know the difference," said Gordon,
gravely. "You ought always to tell us which are which."

Blanche gave her husband a little impertinent stare.

"When I am not appreciated," she said, with an attempt at superior
dryness, "I am too proud to point it out. I don't know whether you know
that I 'm proud," she went on, turning to Gordon and glancing at Captain
Lovelock; "it 's a good thing to know. I suppose Gordon will say that I
ought to be too proud to point that out; but what are you to do when no
one has any imagination? You have a grain or two, Mr. Longueville; but
Captain Lovelock has n't a speck. As for Gordon, je n'en parle pas! But
even you, Mr. Longueville, would never imagine that I am an interesting
invalid--that we are travelling for my delicate health. The doctors have
n't given me up, but I have given them up. I know I don't look as if I
were out of health; but that 's because I always try to look my best.
My appearance proves nothing--absolutely nothing. Do you think my
appearance proves anything, Captain Lovelock?"

Captain Lovelock scrutinized Blanche's appearance with a fixed and
solemn eye; and then he replied--

"It proves you are very lovely."

Blanche kissed her finger-tips to him in return for this compliment.

"You only need to give Captain Lovelock a chance," she rattled on, "and
he is as clever as any one. That 's what I like to do to my friends--I
like to make chances for them. Captain Lovelock is like my dear little
blue terrier that I left at home. If I hold out a stick he will jump
over it. He won't jump without the stick; but as soon as I produce it he
knows what he has