ason for carrying me to this very draughty tavern,"
he said at last.

"I believe it is propinquity," returned Balmile.

"You play dark," said Ballantrae, "but have a care! Be more frank with
me, or I will cut you out. I go through no form of qualifying my threat,
which would be commonplace and not conscientious. There is only one
point in these campaigns: that is the degree of admiration offered by
the man; and to our hostess I am in a posture to make victorious love."

"If you think you have the time, or the game worth the candle," replied
the other with a shrug.

"One would suppose you were never at the pains to observe her," said
Ballantrae.

"I am not very observant," said Balmile. "She seems comely."

"You very dear and dull dog!" cried Ballantrae; "chastity is the most
besotting of the virtues. Why, she has a look in her face beyond
singing! I believe, if you was to push me hard, I might trace it home to
a trifle of a squint. What matters? The height of beauty is in the touch
that's wrong, that's the modulation in a tune. 'Tis the devil we all
love; I owe many a conquest to my mole"--he touched it as he spoke with
a smile, and his eyes glittered;--"we are all hunchbacks, and beauty is
only that kind of deformity that I happen to admire. But come! Because
you are chaste, for which I am sure I pay you my respects, that is no
reason why you should be blind. Look at her, look at the delicious nose
of her, look at her cheek, look at her ear, look at her hand and
wrist--look at the whole baggage from heels to crown, and tell me if she
wouldn't melt on a man's tongue."

As Ballantrae spoke, half jesting, half enthusiastic, Balmile was
constrained to do as he was bidden. He looked at the woman, admired her
excellences, and was at the same time ashamed for himself and his
companion. So it befell that when Marie-Madeleine raised her eyes, she
met those of the subject of her contemplations fixed directly on herself
with a look that is unmistakable, the look of a person measuring and
valuing another,--and, to clench the false impression, that his glance
was instantly and guiltily withdrawn. The blood beat back upon her heart
and leaped again; her obscure thoughts flashed clear before her; she
flew in fancy straight to his arms like a wanton, and fled again on the
instant like a nymph. And at that moment there chanced an interruption,
which not only spared her embarrassment, but set the last consecration
on her now art