e was saying that Captain Gambier lay badly wounded; brandy
was wanted for him. She flung a cloak over Laura, and handed out the
flask with a naked arm. It was not till she saw him again that she
remembered or even felt that he had kissed the arm. A spot of sweet fire
burned on it just where the soft fulness of a woman's arm slopes to the
bend. He chid her for being on the field and rejoiced in a breath, for
the carriage and its contents helped to rescue his wounded brother
in arms from probable death. Gambier, wounded in thigh and ankle by
rifle-shot, was placed in the carriage. His clothes were saturated with
the soil of Goito; but wounded and wet, he smiled gaily, and talked
sweet boyish English. Merthyr gave the driver directions to wind along
up the Mincio. "Georgiana will be at the nearest village--she has an
instinct for battle-fields, or keeps spies in her pay," he said.

"Tell her I am safe. We march to cut them (the enemy) off from Verona,
and I can't leave. The game is in our hands. We shall give you Venice."

Georgiana was found at the nearest village. Gambier's wounds had been
dressed by an army-surgeon. She looked at the dressing, and said that it
would do for six hours. This singular person had fully qualified herself
to attend on a soldier-brother. She had studied medicine for that
purpose, and she had served as nurse in a London hospital. Her nerves
were completely under control. She could sit in attendance by a sick-bed
for hours, hearing distant cannon, and the brawl of soldiery and
vagabonds in the street, without a change of countenance. Her dress
was plain black from throat to heel, with a skull cap of white, like
a Moravian sister. Vittoria reverenced her; but Georgiana's manner in
return was cold aversion, so much more scornful than disdain that it
offended Laura, who promptly put her finger on the blot in the fair
character with the word 'Jealousy;' but a single word is too broad a
mark to be exactly true. "She is a perfect example of your English,"
Laura said. "Brave, good, devoted, admirable--ice at the heart. The
judge of others, of course. I always respected her; I never liked her;
and I should be afraid of a comparison with her. Her management of the
household of this inn is extraordinary."

Georgiana condescended to advise Vittoria once more not to dangle after
armies.

"I wish to wait here to assist you in nursing our friend," said
Vittoria.

Georgiana replied that her strength was u