admiring him
for his bravery and simplicity. But she did not know the value yet of a
steadfast and unselfish heart, and her own was not quite of that order.
So many gallant officers were now to be seen at her father's house, half
a cubit taller than poor Blyth, and a hundred cubits higher in rank, and
wealth, and knowledge of the world, and the power of making their wives
great ladies. Moreover, she liked a dark man, and Scudamore was fair and
fresh as a rose called Hebe's Cup in June. Another thing against him was
that she knew how much her father liked him; and though she loved her
father well, she was not bound to follow his leadings. And yet she did
not wish to lose this useful and pleasant admirer.

"I am not at all ambitious," she replied, without a moment's hesitation,
for the above reflections had long been dealt with, "but how I wish I
could do something to deserve even half that you say of me! But I
fear that you find the air getting rather cold. The weather is so
changeable."

"Are you sure that you are not ambitious?" Scudamore was too deeply
plunged to get out of it now upon her last hint; and to-morrow he must
be far away. "You have every right to be ambitious, if such a word can
be used of you, who are yourself the height of so many ambitions. It was
the only fault I could imagine you to have, and it seems too bad that
you should have none at all."

"You don't know anything about it," said Dolly, with a lovely expression
in her face of candour, penitence, and pleasantry combined; "I am not
only full of faults, but entirely made up of them. I am told of them too
often not to know."

"By miserably jealous and false people." It was impossible to look at
her and not think that. "By people who cannot have a single atom of
perception, or judgment, or even proper feeling. I should like to
hear one of them, if you would even condescend to mention it. Tell
me one--only one--if you can think of it. I am not at all a judge of
character, but--but I have often had to study it a good deal among the
boys."

This made Miss Dolly laugh, and drop her eyes, and smoothe her dress, as
if to be sure that his penetration had not been brought to bear on her.
And the gentle Scuddy blushed at his clumsiness, and hoped that she
would understand the difference.

"You do say such things!" She also was blushing beautifully as she
spoke, and took a long time before she looked at him again. "Things that
nobody else ever says. An