m
that their room was better than their company; and I really think
this very instant must be set down as the third. I never knew, my
dear sir, how much I truly loved you and your daughter, until both
were out of sight."

"That is so kind and gallant a speech, that it ought not to be lost
on the person most concerned. Eve, my love, our worthy friend has
just made a declaration which will be a novelty to you, who have not
been much in the way of listening to speeches of this nature."

Mr. Effingham then acquainted his daughter with what Captain Truck
had just said.

"This is certainly the first declaration of the sort I ever heard,
and with the simplicity of an unpractised young woman, I here avow
that the attachment is reciprocal," said the smiling Eve. "If there
is an indiscretion in this hasty acknowledgement, it must be ascribed
to surprise, and to the suddenness with which I have learned my
power, for your _parvenues_ are not always perfectly regulated."

"I hope Mamselle V.A.V. is well," returned the Captain, cordially
shaking the hand the young lady had given him, "and that she enjoys
herself to her liking in this outlandish country?"

"Mademoiselle Viefville will return you her thanks in person, at
dinner; and I believe she does not yet regret _la belle France_
unreasonably; as I regret it myself, in many particulars, it would be
unjust not to permit a native of the country some liberty in that
way."

"I perceive a strange face in the room--one of the family, my dear
young lady?"

"Not a relative, but a very old friend.--Shall I have the pleasure of
introducing you, Captain?"

"I hardly dared to ask it, for I know you must have been overworked
in this way, lately, but I confess I _should_ like an introduction; I
have neither introduced, nor been introduced since I left New-York,
with the exception of the case of Captain Ducie, whom I made properly
acquainted with Mrs. Hawker and her party as you may suppose. They
know each other regularly now, and you are saved the trouble of going
through the ceremony yourself."

"And how is it with you and the Bloomfields? Did Mrs. Hawker name you
to them properly?"

"That is the most extraordinary thing of the sort I ever knew! Not a
word was said in the way of introduction, and yet I slid into an
acquaintance with Mrs. Bloomfield so easily, that I could not tell
how it was done, if my life depended on it. But this very old friend
of yours, my dear young lady---