w me to carry
all the bundles."

"Oh, but no. Have we got a cavalier with such trouble and shall we turn
him into a beast of burden, a--how do you say it?--a baggage ass? The
good Hannah will carry my bundle.'"

The good Hannah became a baggage animal, but she was not an ass. She
was, indeed, struggling with suppressed mirth. She was confirmed in her
opinion that the Comtesse possessed a subtlety not unlike that of the
serpent in Eden.

The Comtesse led the way, chatting to Captain Twinely, saying things
more charmingly provocative than any which poor Twinely had ever heard
from a woman's lips. Her eyes flashed on him, drooped before his gaze,
sought his again with shy suggestiveness. She even succeeded, when his
glance grew very bold, in blushing. They reached the little cove where
Maurice's boat lay.

The Comtesse sat down, and then lolled back on the short grass. Her
motions and her attitudes were the most easy and natural possible, yet
her pose was charming. There was not a fold of her skirt but fell round
her gracefully. From the challenging smile on her lips to the point of
the little shoe which peeped out beneath her petticoat, there came an
invitation to Captain Twinely--a suggestion that he, too, should sit
gracefully on the grass.

"Now, Una," she said, "go and have your bathe, if you must do anything
so foolish. We will wait for you here, the captain will amuse me till
you return. Kiss me, child, before you go."

Una bent over her.

"I'll keep him," whispered the Comtesse, "I'll keep him, even if I have
to allow the animal to embrace me. But, dear Una, do not be very long."

Una sped away. Hannah, heavily laden, and laughing now outright,
followed her.

"I never seen the like," she said. "Didn't I say to Master Neal last
night that she was an early one? Eh, Miss Una, did you no take notice of
the eyes of her? She'd wile the fishes out of the sea, or a bird off a
bush, so she would, just by looking sweet at them. It's queer manners
they have where she comes from. I'm thinking that silly gowk of a
captain's no the first man she's beguiled. I was counted a braw lass
myself in me day, and one that could twine a lad round my thumb as fine
as any, but I couldna have done thon, Miss Una."

Una gave a little shudder of disgust.

"How could she bear to? How could she touch such a man?"

"Ay, I was wondering that myself, her that's so high falutin' in her
ways, and no like a common lassie. Not but what