quaintance, nor myself for the patience I had shown him. After all,
I had secured an early passage, and was thus able to show Kate Herbert
that I was not going to let the grass grow under my feet this time, and
that she might reckon on my zeal to serve her in future. As I retraced
my road to the cottage, I forgot all about Captain Rogers, and only
thought of Kate, and the interests that were hers. It was next to
a certainty that her father was yet alive; but how to find him in a
strange land, with a feigned name, and most probably with every aid
and appliance to complete his disguisement! It was, doubtless, a noble
enterprise to devote oneself for such as she was, but not very hopeful
withal; and then I went over various plans for my future guidance: what
I should do if I fell sick? what if my money failed me? what if I
were waylaid by Arabs, or carried away to some fearful region in
the mountains, and made to feed a pet alligator or a domestic
boa-constrictor? I hoped sincerely that I was overestimating my possible
perils, but it was wise to give a large margin to the unknown; and so I
did not curb-myself in the least.

As I entered the grounds, the night was falling, and I could see that
the lamps were already lighted in the drawing-room. What surprised
me, however, was to see a very smart groom, well mounted, and leading
another horse up and down before the door. There was, evidently, a
visitor within, and I felt indisposed to enter till he had gone away. My
curiosity, however, prompted me to ask the groom the name of his master,
and he replied, "The Honorable Captain Buller."

The very essence of all jealousy is that it is unreasoning. It is well
known that husbands--that much-believing and much-belied class--always
suspect every one but the right man; and now, without the faintest clew
to a suspicion, I grew actually sick with jealousy!

Nor was it altogether blamable in me, for as I looked through the
uncurtained window, I could see the Captain, a fine-looking, rather
tigerish sort of fellow, standing with his back to the fireplace, while
he talked to Miss Herbert, who sat some distance off at a work-table.
There was in his air that amount of jaunty ease and self-possession that
said, "I 'm at home here; in this fortress I hold the chief command."
There was about him, too, the tone of an assumed superiority, which,
when displayed by a man towards a woman, takes the most offensive of all
possible aspects.

As h