him.

Would she ask the question which it had been the private object of all
Captain Wragge's preliminary talk lightly and pleasantly to provoke?
Yes; as soon as his silence gave her the opportunity, she asked it: "Who
was that friend of his living in the house?"

"You ought by rights to know him as well as I do," said the captain.
"He is the son of one of your father's old military friends, when your
father was quartered with his regiment in Canada. Your cheeks mustn't
flush up! If they do, I shall go away."

She was astonished, but not agitated. Captain Wragge had begun by
interesting her in the remote past, which she only knew by hearsay,
before he ventured on the delicate ground of her own experience.

In a moment more she advanced to her next question: "What was his name?"

"Kirke," proceeded the captain. "Did you never hear of his father, Major
Kirke, commanding officer of the regiment in Canada? Did you never hear
that the major helped your father through a great difficulty, like the
best of good fellows and good friends?"

Yes; she faintly fancied she had heard something about her father and an
officer who had once been very good to him when he was a young man.
But she could not look back so long. "Was Mr. Kirke poor?" Even Captain
Wragge's penetration was puzzled by that question. He gave the true
answer at hazard. "No," he said, "not poor."

Her next inquiry showed what she had been thinking of. "If Mr. Kirke was
not poor, why did he come to live in that house?"

"She has caught me!" thought the captain. "There is only one way out of
it--I must administer another dose of truth. Mr. Kirke discovered you
here by chance," he proceeded, aloud, "very ill, and not nicely attended
to. Somebody was wanted to take care of you while you were not able
to take care of yourself. Why not Mr. Kirke? He was the son of your
father's old friend--which is the next thing to being _your_ old friend.
Who had a better claim to send for the right doctor, and get the right
nurse, when I was not here to cure you with my wonderful Pill? Gently!
gently! you mustn't take hold of my superfine black coat-sleeve in that
unceremonious manner."

He put her hand back on the bed, but she was not to be checked in that
way. She persisted in asking another question.--How came Mr. Kirke
to know her? She had never seen him; she had never heard of him in her
life.

"Very likely," said Captain Wragge. "But your never having seen _him_ is
n