ewhat depressing visit, the call upon Mrs. Roberts was a
refreshing one. She received her very cordially.

"I like you, Miss Hannay," she said, when, after a quarter of an hour's
lively talk, the Major and his niece got up to go. "I always say what I
think, and it is very good natured of me to say so, for I don't disguise
from myself that you will put my nose out of joint."

"I don't want to put anyone's nose out of joint," Isobel laughed.

"You will do it, whether you want to or not," Mrs. Roberts said; "my
husband as much as told me so last night, and I was prepared not to like
you, but I see that I shall not be able to help doing so. Major Hannay,
you have dealt me a heavy blow, but I forgive you."

When the round of visits was finished the Major said, "Well, Isobel,
what do you think of the ladies of the regiment?"

"I think they are all very nice, uncle. I fancy I shall like Mrs.
Doolan and Mrs. Scarsdale best; I won't give any opinion yet about Mrs.
Cromarty."

CHAPTER IV.

The life of Isobel Hannay had not, up to the time when she left England
to join her uncle, been a very bright one. At the death of her father,
her mother had been left with an income that enabled her to live, as she
said, genteelly, at Brighton. She had three children: the eldest a
girl of twelve; Isobel, who was eight; and a boy of five, who was sadly
deformed, the result of a fall from the arms of a careless nurse when
he was an infant. It was at that time that Major Hannay had come home on
leave, having been left trustee and executor, and seen to all the money
arrangements, and had established his brother's widow at Brighton. The
work had not been altogether pleasant, for Mrs. Hannay was a selfish and
querulous woman, very difficult to satisfy even in little matters, and
with a chronic suspicion that everyone with whom she came in contact
was trying to get the best of her. Her eldest girl was likely, Captain
Hannay thought, to take after her mother, whose pet she was, while
Isobel took after her father. He had suggested that both should be sent
to school, but Mrs. Hannay would not hear of parting from Helena, but
was willing enough that Isobel should be sent to a boarding school at
her uncle's expense.

As the years went by, Helena grew up, as Mrs. Hannay proudly said, the
image of what she herself had been at her age--tall and fair, indolent
and selfish, fond of dress and gayety, discontented because their means
would not per