termined to find out the truth. Chance
also offered her this retreat, which would put the ocean between them if
he failed her, and then no distance could be too great for her wishes.

"Can you give me till the mail after next to decide?" said she, as she
arrived at this point of decision.

"Oh, of course," said Mrs. Rolleston, smiling at the almost tragic tone
of resolution in which it was uttered. "You will have to consult your
mother, and she might not wish you to go to England. Why child, how pale
you are!"

Bluebell forced a wintry smile and escaped, for a lump was rising in her
throat, and she could not but remember that she must expect no sympathy
or support from Mrs. Rolleston, who had once said, "It would be a most
unsuitable connection." She passed the day in reviewing the situation.
This was the first time she had ever been called on to think seriously
and painfully, and act for herself without a friendly word to support
her. Perhaps Du Meresq's behaviour the day before had not a little braced
her to the energetic course she had determined on. It was, indeed, no
easy task to extort from a man who professed so much the simple question
in black and white which could alone give value to his addresses. With no
witnesses present, she had little doubt that he would be as ardent a
lover as ever; but that would no longer satisfy her. She had arranged her
plan, and relied on two feelers to settle the matter one way or the
other.

The first was to repeat to Bertie what Lilla had said about himself and
Cecil, and then judge of the effect of her words. If unsatisfactory, she
might tell him she was going to take a situation in England, "and if he
makes no effort to stop _that_, it will, indeed, be over, and I will go,"
was the necessary conclusion.

Du Meresq and his friend, Captain Lascelles, came to dinner. Were
either to die, exchange, or marry, the other would doubtless feel much
inconvenienced, not to say injured. In England, their hunters, rooms at
Newmarket, stall at the Opera, or whatever would bear division, were all
joint-stock affairs; and either would, with perfect cordiality, have lent
the other money, which a long unpaid tradesman would have found
exceedingly hard to extract from him.

Both were unquiet spirits in the regiment, abhorring the monotony of
drill and stables, and insatiable for leave. Yet on field-days, even
their most pipe clay of colonels admitted that there was no smarter
turned out tro