tiny has decreed that I must live by my wits,
without even providing me with any."

"So you see," continued she, "as we have neither money nor brains, it is
no use thinking of it!"

"You are wise in your generation," said Jack, darkly. "You are pretty
enough to get a rich husband any day; but whoever it is, for Heaven's
sake, don't let it be Du Meresq!"

Bluebell's fair brow contracted, and her dark lashes swept her cheek, as
she said, in a low, pained voice,--"No fear of that."

"I trust not," said Jack, severely, and quite unconvinced. "You are but a
child, Bluebell; and, though you won't take me, I shall watch over you,
and see that you do not throw yourself away; though if any good fellow
wants you, I suppose I must grin and bear it."

"Thanks, my stern guardian. I hope you won't die of old age in the mean
time. And now, do go, dear Jack. I must paddle after the others."

"Say good-bye first. May I, Bluebell? Only this once,"--and, without
waiting for consent, he imprinted a kiss, grave as an officiating
priest's to a new made bride. Touched by his love and resignation she
voluntarily returned it, and, turning away, encountered the two
mischievous eyes of Miss Tremaine in the stern of her boat, which had
glided up unobserved.

I suppose there is no dereliction from the Eleventh Commandment, in which
people would more joyfully welcome an earthquake than being taken at a
similar disadvantage. No explanation or extenuating circumstances can be
attempted in that deep confusion.

Lilla raised her eyes to heaven with a most edifying expression of pious
horror, and shook her head disapprovingly.

"Jack," muttered Bluebell, in a tone of concentrated anguish, "I shall
die of it!"

Vavasour suppressed an expletive more forcible than parliamentary, and
strode down to pull the boat in.

"Oh, here you are," cried Cecil, innocent of the foregoing pantomime, for
she was rowing, and had her back to them. "Mr. Vavasour, where do you
spring from?" She noted, as she spoke, his strange expression and
Bluebell's heightened colour with quickening curiosity and pleasure.

"I left Fane further down the river," said he; "and Miss Leigh and I sat
listening to the--bull-frogs." Here Jack cast a look half-imploring,
half-furious, at Lilla, who had assumed a most Quakerish expression, and
hummed the air, "A frog he would a wooing go."

"Well, get in Bluebell," said Cecil, smiling; "we are going home now.
Come and see us soon, Mr