, and meet half-a-dozen
policemen from the neighbourhood. But Florian had as yet but half
confessed, and almost hoped that Captain Clayton would appear among
them as his friend.

The girls, to tell the truth, had been much taken with the appearance
of the gallant Captain. It seems to be almost a shame to tell the
truth of what modest girls may think of any man whom they may chance
to meet. They would never tell it to themselves. Even two sisters
can hardly do so. And when the man comes before them, just for once
or twice, to be judged and thought of at a single interview, the
girl,--such as were these girls,--can hardly tell it to herself. "He
is manly and brave, and has so much to say for himself, and is so
good-looking, that what can any girl who has her heart at her own
disposal wish for better than such a lover?" It would have been quite
impossible that either of Mr. Jones's daughters could ever have so
whispered to herself. But was it not natural that such an unwhispered
thought should have passed through the mind of Ada--Ada the
beautiful, Ada the sentimental, Ada the young lady who certainly was
in want of a lover? "He is very nice, certainly," said Ada, allowing
herself not another word, to her sister.

"But what is the good of a man being nice when he is a 'woodcock'?"
said Edith. "Everybody says that his destiny is before him. I daresay
he is nice, but what's the use?"

"You don't mean to say that you think he'll be killed?" said Ada.

"I do, and I mean to say that if I were a man, it might be that I
should have to be killed too. A man has to run his chance, and if he
falls into such a position as this, of course he must put up with it.
I don't mean to say that I don't like him the better for it."

"Why does he not go away and leave the horrid country?" said Ada.

"Because the more brave men that go away the more horrid the country
will become. And then I think a man is always the happier if he has
something really to think of. Such a one as Captain Clayton does not
want to go to balls."

"I suppose not," said Ada plaintively, as though she thought it a
thousand pities that Captain Clayton should not want to go to balls.

"Such a man," said Edith with an air of firmness, "finds a woman when
he wants to marry, who will suit him,--and then he marries her. There
is no necessity for any balls there."

"Then he ought not to dance at all. Such a man ought not to want to
get married."

"Not if he means t