asionally to come and inquire after your health. `La
Sybille' requires repairs, and will be detained here some time."

At first Colonel Armytage received him with great coldness, naturally
looking on him with contempt, as having played the dishonourable part of
a spy during his visit to Calcutta; but the lieutenant explained the
cause of his appearance there so much to the colonel's satisfaction, and
his attentions were so unremitting and delicate, that he completely won
his way into the good graces of the English officer.

Gerardo was too acute an observer not to have discovered the authority
Colonel Armytage exercised over his family, and he fancied that the most
certain way of winning the daughter was first to gain over the father.
By degrees also he obtained the good opinion of Mrs Armytage. He never
obtruded his services, but he offered them to her in so delicate a
manner, and showed so much pleasure in being employed, that it was
scarcely possible for her to refuse them. All the fruits and flowers
which the islands produced were collected and brought to her and her
daughter, often not obtained without difficulty, while numberless
objects of interest, evidently taken out of prizes, were offered for
their acceptance.

Very few of the other officers came near them; indeed, they appeared
generally to be of a different stamp to the captain and his first
lieutenant.

"We really might be very happy here if we did not wish to be elsewhere,"
observed Mrs Armytage to her daughter.

"Yes, certainly," remarked another lady. "But what shall we do when our
clothes wear out? It will be shocking not to be able to get any of the
new fashions. I am afraid our polite captain and Monsieur Gerardo will
not think half as much about us then."

"You don't suppose that we are to be kept here for ever!" exclaimed
another lady, in a great state of agitation.

"Perhaps till the war is over--such things are done," remarked Mrs
Armytage, who, having her husband and daughter with her, was more
inclined to be contented with her lot than were most of the party.

With most of the captives, however, the days in that delightful climate
passed pleasantly and rapidly by. Had Ronald Morton wished Edda to be
placed in a position where her thoughts would most probably be occupied
with him, he could scarcely have selected one more favourable for the
purpose than that in which she now found herself.

What might have been the effect of the