t a margin of hair above the
brows. The colour of her hair was a bright auburn, that of her
eyebrows so darkly brown as to seem wellnigh black; and altogether
she made a remarkable little figure, standing there in the doorway,
with a pair of white satin dancing-shoes clutched in her hand.

'Oh!' said the colonel. 'Good-evening!'

'O-o-oh!' answered the child, and with a catch, as it were, and a
thrill in the voice that astonished him. Her eyes, fixed on his,
grew larger and rounder. She came a pace or two towards him on
tiptoe, halted, clasped both hands over her dancing-shoes, and
exclaimed, with a deeper thrill than before:--

'You are Colonel Baigent!'

'Eh?' The colonel sat bolt upright.

'Yes; and Aunt Louisa will be glad!'

He put a hand up to the crown of his head. 'Good Lord!' he murmured,
staring wildly around the room, and then slowly fastening his gaze
upon the child--at most she could not be more than nine years old--
confronting him. 'Good Lord! Will she?'

'Yes; and so am I!' She nodded, and her eyes seemed to be devouring
while they worshipped him. 'But wasn't it clever of me to know you
at once?'

'It's--it's about the cleverest thing I've come across in all my born
days,' stammered Colonel Baigent, collapsing into his chair, and then
suddenly clutching the arms of it and peering forward.

'But, of course, I've known you for ever so long, really,' she went
on, and nodded again as if to reassure him.

'Oh! "of course," is it? I--I say, won't you sit down and have a
nut or two--or a fig?'

'Thank you.' She gave him quite a grown-up bow, and seated herself.
'I'll take a fig; nuts give you the indigestion at this time of
night.' She picked up a fig demurely, and laid it on a plate he
pushed towards her. 'I hope I'm behaving nicely?' she said, looking
up at him with the most engaging candour; 'because Aunt Louisa says
you always had the most beautiful manners. In fact, that's what made
her take to you, long--oh! ever so long--before you became famous.
And now you're the Bayard of India!'

'But, excuse me--'

She had begun to munch her fig, but interrupted him with another nod.

'Yes, I know what you are going to say. That's the name they give to
another general out in India, don't they? But Aunt Louisa declares
he won't hold a candle to you--though I don't know why he should want
to do anything of the sort.'

'It's uncommonly kind of your Aunt Louisa--' he began again.