have surely understood him to be
a regular fire-eater--that all Chicago has rung with his escapades,"
says the colonel of Royal Engineers, sneeringly.

"Nonsense! But, Lady Ruth, you spoke of my proving something--what can
I do for you?"

"Look!"

She extends a shapely arm. Her finger points to a white flower growing
out upon the face of the precipice beside them.

"Do you see that flower?" she asks.

"I do," he replies, calmly.

"I would like to possess it."

The young man looks down. A fall means instant death, and it would be
impossible for even an experienced Alpine traveler to pass along the
face of the rock in safety.

"I see no means of reaching the flower, or I assure you I would gladly
secure it for you."

"Ah! but a bold man would climb out there."

"Pardon--he would be a fool--his life would pay the penalty for a pretty
girl's whim. Unfortunately, perhaps, my life is too precious to some one
other than myself, to admit of the sacrifice. I am willing to do much
for Lady Ruth, but I decline to be made a fool of."

"Well spoken," begins the professor.

"Philander!" exclaims his spouse, and the little man draws in his head
very much after the style of a tortoise.

"Coward!"

The English girl is sorry as soon as the low word leaves her lips. No
one hears it but the young doctor, for the attention of all the others
is at that time directed elsewhere.

This time the object of her scorn does not flush, but turns very white,
as he looks her steadily in the eyes.

"I am sorry you have such a poor opinion of me, Lady Ruth. I make no
apologies, save the one that my life is too valuable--to others, to
myself--to throw it away at the mere caprice of a girl."

"There is a gentleman who finds a way to accomplish what he wants. Take
a lesson from him, Doctor Chicago," she says.

Colonel Lionel has noticed a long pole near by, in the end of which is a
cleft. This he has secured, and, by crawling as far as is safe along the
face of the rock, he is enabled to just reach the flower.

After a number of ineffectual lunges he succeeds in clutching the
coveted article in the cleft of the pole, and draws it toward him.

A moment later he presents the flower to Lady Ruth, with a smile and a
bow.

"No English lady ever expressed a wish that a British officer did not
feel bound in honor to grant," he says.

The girl thanks him, and then says:

"After all, the flower was prettier at a distance than when in