his country, in the affections of his betrothed
bride?'"

"Oh! that will be splendid, Wynnette! What book did you get it out of?"
innocently inquired Elva.

"'Book?' No book! Every good thing I say you think comes out of a book;
but it came out of my own head."

"What a splendid head you have, Wynnette!"

"Yes. I guess people will find that out some of these days."

"Col. Anglesea will, won't he? Now you say that to him, Wynnette! Just as
you said it to me!"

"That will fetch him! No, not 'fetch him'--that is vulgar, too. Make an
impression on him--that is what I mean, Elva."

"Yes; and I do just think that he would feel so ashamed of himself that he
would turn right around and go home!"

"I hope he may!" said Wynnette.

"But if he should stay and marry Odalite, in spite of all, oh! what will
poor Le do?" said compassionate little Elva.

"Don't know, I'm sure; but I know what I would do."

"What would you do, Wynnette?"

"Have the satisfaction of a gentleman."

"And what is that?"

"Call the rapscallion--no, I mean the diabolical villain--out and shoot
him!"

"Oh, Wynnette! Is that the satisfaction of a gentleman? To commit so great
a sin?"

"I'd do it, and face the music afterward. No--I mean I would take the
consequences."

"Oh, no, you wouldn't, Wynnette. And you must not, for all the world, put
such a thing in poor Le's head. He will be in trouble enough when he comes
home, poor fellow, to find his sweetheart taken away from him without
having--oh! I can't speak the dreadful word, Wynnette. Poor Le! I tell you
what I'll do, Wynnette."

"What?"

"Well, if the worst comes to the worst, and that colonel does take Odalite
away from Le----"

"Of course he will take Odalite away from Le. There is not a doubt of it.
I shall have the pleasure of speaking my mind to the scalawag--I mean the
wretch--but that is all I shall get; and he, he will feel ashamed of
himself, perhaps, and that is all he will do. He is not a man to give up
anything he wants; and he wants Odalite, and he means to have her--the
brute!"

"Well, if it comes to that, I tell you what I will do. I will marry poor
dear Le myself--that is, when I am big enough. I always did like Le."

"You! You marry Le!" exclaimed Wynnette, opening her black eyes to their
widest capacity.

"Yes, when I am big enough--that is, I mean, unless you would take him.
That would be ever so much better."

"I! Why, I wouldn't have Le Force if every ha