ns! Why, Mona, I believe you were more than half
engaged to that poor boy, and now you are preparing to throw him over
for his successor."

"Poor fellow, he was rather fond of me!" is the complacent rejoinder.
"I don't know that I ever saw any of them so cut up as he was when he
said good-bye. But, look here, Gracie. He is no older than am, and has
only been a couple of years in the Service! What sort of aged and
wrinkled hag shall I be by the time he gets even a third-class
magistracy?"

"Quite so. And having broken his heart--done your best to I should say,
for hearts don't break at young Watkins' age--you are going to set to
work to subjugate his successor."

"What is life worth without its little excitements?" is the soft,
purring reply; but no attempt does the speaker make to repudiate the
imputation.

"Little excitements, indeed! Did you ever try and count the number of
men you have made fools of? Let's begin. There was young Watkins here;
the new doctor at Villiersdorp; then there was that man on board ship--
two rather--for I hear you were playing off one against the other. And
while you were in England--"

"Oh, that'll do, that'll do! I didn't make fools of them. They made
fools of themselves."

"You'll do it once too often one of these days. You'll end by singeing
your own wings, and that when you least expect it. And when you do
it'll be a scorcher, my child--a scorcher, mark my words."

"I don't know that I'd mind that. I believe I should positively enjoy
it. Such an experience would be delicious."

"Wait until it comes, Mona, and then tell me how `enjoyable,' how
`delicious' you find it," is the reply, given rather shortly, and, it
might be thought, with a dash of bitterness.

But Mona Ridsdale says nothing as she slides from her hammock, and,
standing upright, stretches her magnificent limbs and again yawns.
Looked at now she is seen to be a splendidly developed, and perfectly
proportioned specimen of womanhood: whose lines the fall throat and
bust, the symmetrical curves of the waist, and the swelling, rounded
hips, show faultless in the lithe, natural grace of her attitude. The
face, however, is a puzzling one, for its upper and lower parts are
contradictory. The higher aspirations, a great capacity for tenderness,
and the better and nobler qualities suggested in the broad, smooth brow
and melting hazel eyes, are negatived by the setting of the lower jaw
and the straight comp