, for I was
thankful to have any one on whom I could rely. You know, probably as
well as I do, that there is little love lost between the Carterets and
myself, though, by my father's will, I must stay with them till I am of
age. I have one brother, a boy of eighteen; he is with his regiment
serving out in India, and the climate is killing him by inches, though
he is too brave to try and get sick leave. Your father has been doing
all he can to have him exchanged; the letters I have had from him have
been to tell me of his success, and to say that Arthur is gazetted to
the Buffs, and coming home overland. There is the head and front of my
offending, Major Telfer; a very simple explanation, is it not? Perhaps
another time you will be more cautious in your censure."

A faint flush came over the Major's bronzed cheek; he looked out of the
portico, and was silent for a minute. The knowledge that he has wronged
another is a keen pang to a proud man of an honor almost fastidious in
his punctilio of right. He swung quickly round, and held out his hand to
her.

"I beg your pardon; I have misjudged you, and I am thoroughly ashamed of
myself for it," he said, in a low voice.

When the Major does come down from his hauteur, and let some of his
winning cordial nature come out, no woman living, unless she were some
animated Medusa, could find it in her heart to say him nay. His frank
self-condemnation touched Violet, despite herself, and, without
thinking, she laid her small fingers in his proffered hand. Then the
Tressillian pride flashed up again; she drew it hastily away, and walked
out into the air.

"Pray do not distress yourself," she said, with an effort (not
successful) to seem perfectly calm and nonchalant. "It is not of the
slightest consequence; we understand each other's sentiments now, and
shall in future be courteous in our hate like two of the French
_noblesse_, complimenting one another before they draw their swords to
slay or to be slain. It has cleared now, so I will leave you to the
solitude I disturbed. Come, Floss." And calling the pug after her,
Violet very gracefully swept down the steps, but with a stride the Major
was at her side.

"Nay, Miss Tressillian," he said, gently, "it is true I've given you
cause to think me as rude as Orson or Caliban, but I am not quite such a
bear as to let you walk home through these woods alone."

Violet made an impatient movement. "Pray don't trouble yourself. We are
clo