, looking up that he
might admire her eyes, and down that her lashes might have their due
effect.

He interpreted all these signs in a favorable sense, but still
prudently refrained from committing himself, until directly challenged
by the blush and simper with which she said:

"I suppose you must have seen a great many pretty ladies in Mexico?"

He waited a moment, looking at her steadily until her eyelids trembled
and fell, and then he said, seriously and gravely:

"I used to think so; but I never saw there or anywhere else as pretty a
lady as I see at this minute."

This was the first time in her life that Maud had heard such words from
a man. Sam Sleeny, with all his dumb worship, had never found words to
tell her she was beautiful, and Bott was too grossly selfish and dull
to have thought of it. Poor Sleeny, who would have given his life for
her, had not wit enough to pay her a compliment. Offitt, whose love was
as little generous as the hunger of a tiger, who wished only to get her
into his power, who cared not in the least by what means he should
accomplish this, who was perfectly willing to have her find out all his
falsehoods the day after her wedding, relying upon his brute strength
to retain her then,--this conscienceless knave made more progress by
these words than Sam by months of the truest devotion. Yet the
impression he made was not altogether pleasant. Thirsting for
admiration as she did, there was in her mind an indistinct conscious
ness that the man was taking a liberty; and in the sudden rush of color
to her cheek and brow at Offitt's words, there was at first almost as
much anger as pleasure. But she had neither the dignity nor the
training required for the occasion, and all the reply she found was:

"Oh, Mr. Offitt, how can you say so?"

"I say so," he answered, with the same unsmiling gravity, "because it's
the fact. I have been all over the world. I have seen thousands of
beautiful ladies, even queens and markisses, and I never yet saw and I
never expect to see such beauty as yours, Miss Maud Matchin, of
Buffland."

She still found no means to silence him or defend herself. She said,
with an uneasy laugh, "I am sure I don't see where the wonderful beauty
is."

"That's because your modesty holds over your beauty. But I see where it
is. It's in your eyes, that's like two stars of the night; in your
forehead, that looks full of intellect and sense; in your rosy cheeks
and smiling lips; i