content--if it can ever
be contented!--and to tell her some good news."

"But there are still Ronald and the Major!" she persisted. "They are not
card-room fixtures! Ronald will be coming and going. And as for Mr.
Chevenix, he----"

"Always sits with Miss Flora?" I interrupted. "And they talk of poor St.
Ives? I had gathered as much, my dear; and Mr. Ducie has come to prevent
it! But pray dismiss these fears! I mind no one but your aunt."

"Why my aunt?"

"Because your aunt is a lady, my dear, and a very clever lady, and, like
all clever ladies, a very rash lady," said I. "You can never count upon
them, unless you are sure of getting them in a corner, as I have got
you, and talking them over rationally, as I am just engaged on with
yourself! It would be quite the same to your aunt to make the worst kind
of a scandal, with an equal indifference to my danger and to the
feelings of our good host!"

"Well," she said, "and what of Ronald, then? Do you think _he_ is above
making a scandal? You must know him very little!"

"On the other hand, it is my pretension that I know him very well!" I
replied. "I must speak to Ronald first--not Ronald to me--that is all!"

"Then, please, go and speak to him at once!" she pleaded. "He is
there--do you see?--at the upper end of the room, talking to that girl
in pink."

"And so lose this seat before I have told you my good news?" I
exclaimed. "Catch me! And, besides, my dear one, think a little of me
and my good news! I thought the bearer of good news was always welcome!
I hoped he might be a little welcome for himself! Consider! I have but
one friend; and let me stay by her! And there is only one thing I care
to hear; and let me hear it!"

"O Anne," she sighed, "if I did not love you, why should I be so uneasy?
I am turned into a coward, dear! Think, if it were the other way
round--if you were quite safe and I was in, O, such danger!"

She had no sooner said it than I was convicted of being a dullard. "God
forgive me, dear!" I made haste to reply, "I never saw before that there
were two sides to this!" And I told her my tale as briefly as I could,
and rose to seek Ronald. "You see, my dear, you are obeyed," I said.

She gave me a look that was a reward in itself; and as I turned away
from her, with a strong sense of turning away from the sun, I carried
that look in my bosom like a caress. The girl in pink was an arch,
ogling person, with a good deal of eyes and teeth, and a