ey, the groves of Blarney, or what other picturesque celebrity
your island claims; but I have vowed you a visit of two days,--three, if
you insist,--but not another if you die for it.' Is n't he droll?"

"He is insufferably impudent. There is 'a snob' if there ever was one,"
cried Alice, exultingly.

"Norman Maitland, Norman Maitland a snob! Why, my dear sister, what will
you say next? Ask the world its opinion of Norman Maitland, for he is
just as well known in St. Petersburg as Piccadilly, and the ring of his
rifle is as familiar on the Himalayas as on a Scotch mountain. There is
not a gathering for pleasure, nor a country-house party in the kingdom,
would not deem themselves thrice fortunate to secure a passing visit
from him, and he is going to give us three days."

"Has he been long in your regiment, Mark?" asked Mrs. Trafford.

"Maitland has never served with us; he joined us in Simla as a member of
our mess, and we call him 'of ours' because he never would dine with the
9th or the 50th. Maitland would n't take the command of a division to
have the bore and worry of soldiering,--and why should he?"

It was not without astonishment Mark's sisters saw their brother,
usually cold and apathetic in his tone, so warmly enthusiastic about his
friend Maitland, of whom he continued to talk with rapture, recalling
innumerable traits of character and temper, but which unhappily only
testified to the success with which he had practised towards the world
an amount of impertinence and presumption that seemed scarcely credible.

"If he only be like your portrait, I call him downright detestable,"
said Mrs. Trafford.

"Yes, but you are dying to see him all the same, and so is Bella."

"Let me answer for myself, Mark," said Isabella, "and assure you that,
so far from curiosity, I feel an actual repugnance to the thought of
meeting him. I don't really know whether the condescending politeness of
such a man, or his cool impertinence, is the greater insult."

"Poor Maitland, how will you encounter what is prepared for you?" said
be, mockingly; "but courage, girls, I think he 'll survive it,--only
I beg no unnecessary cruelty,--no harshness beyond what his own
transgressions may call down upon him; and don't condemn him merely, and
for no other reason, than because he is the friend of your brother." And
with this speech he turned short round and ascended a steep path at his
side, and was lost to their view in a minute.

"Isn