maid at this moment, "and
hopes the gentleman will stay to dinner with you, though she cannot come
down herself."

"She imagines you are my cousin, whom she is aware I have been
expecting," said Miss Herbert, in a whisper, and evidently appearing
uncertain how to act.

"Oh!" said I, with an anguish I could not repress, "would that I could
change my lot with his!"

"Very well, Mary," said Miss Herbert; "thank your mistress from me, and
say the gentleman accepts her invitation with pleasure. Is it too much
presumption on my part, sir, to say so?" said she, with a low whisper,
while a half-malicious twinkle lit up her eyes, and I could not speak
with happiness.

Determined, however, to give an earnest of my zeal in her cause, I
declared I would at once return to the town, and learn when the first
packet sailed for Constantinople. The dinner hour was seven, so that
I had fully five hours yet to make my inquiries ere we met at table. I
wondered at myself how business-like and practical I had become; but a
strong impulse now impelled me, and seemed to add a sort of strength to
my whole nature.

"As Cousin Harry is the mirror of punctuality, and you now represent
him, Mr. Potts," said she, shaking my hand, "pray remember not to be
later than seven."

CHAPTER XLVI. CAPTAIN ROGERS STANDS MY FRIEND

"Constantinople, Odessa, and the Levant.--The 'Cyclops,' five hundred
horse-power, to sail on Wednesday morning, at eight o'clock. For freight
or passage apply to Captain Robert B. Rogers."

This announcement, which I found amidst a great many others in a frame
over the fireplace in the coffee-room, struck me forcibly, first of all,
because, not belonging to the regular mail-packets, it suggested a cheap
passage; and, secondly, it promised an early departure, and the vessel
was to sail on the very next morning, an amount of promptitude that I
felt would gratify Miss Herbert.

Now, although I had been living for a considerable time back at the cost
of the Imperial House of Hapsburg, my resources for such an expedition
as was opening before me were of the most slender kind. I made a careful
examination of all my worldly wealth, and it amounted to the sum of
forty-three pounds some odd shillings. On _terra firma_ I could, of
course, economize to any extent. With self-denial and resolution I could
live on very little. Life in the East, I had often heard, was singularly
cheap and inexpensive. All I had read of Oriental habi