The admiral (who was honestly afraid of his spoilt niece) confounded himself in thanks and praise, and privately thanked also his stars that his ward had grown up so unsophisticated. With that tricksy Spanish spirit of hers, had she taken this affair in a different light she might have got me into fearful trouble, he thought, softly whistling directly the descendant of the hidalgos had turned the corner. Next day was fixed for Roscoria's introduction. On hearing the complete success of his stratagem, Louis arrayed himself regardless of expense and hastened to Braceton Park. He gave Tregurtha leave to follow him in an hour--"to be introduced to the lady, who, I suppose, will then be my betrothed," he said. Admitted into the drawing-room, Roscoria was left alone for what seemed to him an awful while. He grew nervous, and fluttered at every sound in the room. The clock annoyed him inexpressibly, and he started every time he faced a mirror. At last, in despair, he clutched his hat and stick, and sat down in orderly stiffness with his back to the door, and tried to abstract his thoughts. But they would dwell on his Lyndis, and it was no use to try and "sit like his grandsire carved in alabaster." Suddenly there was a light sound of approach, and a tremulous, sweet voice close to his ear said simply: "Good-afternoon, Mr. Roscoria." Louis bounded on his chair as by galvanism, dropped his incumbrances, and spread forth a pair of eager arms, into which Rosetta, thinking this was all in the day's work, was actually preparing submissively to walk, when he saw that something was wrong. "Ten _thousand_ pardons!" he cried. "Not at all," said Rosetta, smiling. "It is quite natural that you should feel deeply upon an occasion like this." And then she rubbed her small hands together bashfully, and waited with a beating heart for the beginning of his courtship. "But I hope you see my mistake," urged Louis, still in smiling embarrassment. "I took you, in fact, for another lady." "But; I _am_ the other lady," said Rosetta. "Ah!--Miss Villiers I was expecting." "Precisely, I am Miss Villiers," said Rosetta, with firmness. Roscoria looked the lady in the face. She was a very young looking creature, small, but rather strongly made, with a striking white face and great blue-black eye with a latent, passionate fire in the very depths of them. She had a resolute small chin and a decided mouth. Louis thought her, spite of her prettiness, the most tremendous interlocutor he had ever met. He turned absolutely faint with sudden horror, and grasped a chair, saying feebly: "But Miss Villiers was tall and fair." "Oh, my cousin do you mean? Yes; she will be in directly. But--but"--(Rosetta's face grew whiter and her eyes larger with the shock of discovery)--"you did not mean _her_, surely?" "Excuse me--I did--and do."