and I, on my
side, think she 's so nice."

"Can't say I 'm very sweet on her," said the Captain. "She strikes me as
feline."

Blanche Evers gave a little cry of horror.

"Stop, sir, this instant! I won't have you talk that way about a lady
who has been so kind to me."

"She is n't so kind to you. She would like to lock you up where I can
never see you."

"I 'm sure I should n't mind that!" cried the young girl, with a
little laugh and a toss of her head. "Mrs. Vivian has the most perfect
character--that 's why my mother wanted me to come with her. And if she
promised my mother she would be careful, is n't she right to keep her
promise? She 's a great deal more careful than mamma ever was, and that
's just what mamma wanted. She would never take the trouble herself. And
then she was always scolding me. Mrs. Vivian never scolds me. She only
watches me, but I don't mind that."

"I wish she would watch you a little less and scold you a little more,"
said Captain Lovelock.

"I have no doubt you wish a great many horrid things," his companion
rejoined, with delightful asperity.

"Ah, unfortunately I never have anything I wish!" sighed Lovelock.

"Your wishes must be comprehensive," said Bernard. "It seems to me you
have a good deal."

The Englishman gave a shrug.

"It 's less than you might think. She is watching us more furiously than
ever," he added, in a moment, looking at Mrs. Vivian. "Mr. Gordon Wright
is the only man she likes. She is awfully fond of Mr. Gordon Wright."

"Ah, Mrs. Vivian shows her wisdom!" said Bernard.

"He is certainly very handsome," murmured Blanche Evers, glancing
several times, with a very pretty aggressiveness, at Captain Lovelock.
"I must say I like Mr. Gordon Wright. Why in the world did you come here
without him?" she went on, addressing herself to Bernard. "You two are
so awfully inseparable. I don't think I ever saw you alone before."

"Oh, I have often seen Mr. Gordon Wright alone," said Captain
Lovelock--"that is, alone with Miss Vivian. That 's what the old lady
likes; she can't have too much of that."

The young girl, poised for an instant in one of her pretty attitudes,
looked at him from head to foot.

"Well, I call that scandalous! Do you mean that she wants to make a
match?"

"I mean that the young man has six thousand a year."

"It 's no matter what he has--six thousand a year is n't much! And we
don't do things in that way in our country. We have n't those h