In spite of her affected indifference, Bella was bent upon bringing Captain Standish to the Park. He had called upon the Porkmans. Was she--with her advanced ideas of elegance and her unlimited capacity for reading French novels--to be of less account than the Porkmans? Was that overgrown Blanche, with her drab hair and complexion, and goggle eyes, to boast of an acquaintance beyond Bella’s reach? ‘The next time you come, colonel, you must bring Captain Standish,’ said Mrs. Piper to the cordial O’Shaughnessy, after that gentleman had dined copiously at Mr. Piper’s expense, and told all his tiger stories, in which he was apt to lose the tiger in a jumble of irrelevant parentheses. ‘Madam, if I live and he lives till next Thursday, Standish shall do homage at the shrine of beauty and domestic excellence,’ protested the colonel, which was merely his way of saying that Captain Standish should come to see Mrs. Piper. The following Thursday came, but no Standish. Another and another Thursday, and the colonel still appeared, apologetic and disgusted. That fellow Standish was perfectly incorrigible, he declared. But this was the fourth Thursday, and Captain Standish was here. ‘Madam,’ said the colonel, introducing his junior, ‘I have kept my promise. If this fellow had tried to put me off to-day I should have lugged him here by the hair of his head.’ ‘And if I had known how charming--a place I was to see, I should have come ages ago without your interference, colonel,’ said the captain. There was a break in the sentence, a look in the captain’s eyes that said in plainest language, ‘If I had known what a lovely woman I was to see, &c., &c.’ And Bella, having lately graduated in the novels of Charles de Bernard, thoroughly understood the look and tone. Mr. Piper also was gratified by Captain Standish’s visit. His friend Timperley had bragged of his familiarity with the captain; his friend Porkman had boasted of the captain’s morning call. Mr. Piper did not wish to be behind those compeers of his. He had felt himself at a disadvantage when they were lauding the all-accomplished Standish. ‘Well, Beller, my love,’ he said, when the guests had all departed, and he sat down to a _tête-à-tête_ dinner with his wife, who was quite exhausted by the cares and triumphs of the afternoon. ‘I’m glad we’ve had Captain Standish at one of our Thursdays, since people round Great Yafford think such a lot about him; but I don’t see that he’s anything so wonderful. He’s very much like all the other military men I’ve seen--extra well got-up linen--a neat-cut boot--and hair cropped as close as a convick’s. That’s the general pattern, I take it.’ ‘Oh, Mr Piper!’ cried Bella, horrified at this blasphemy. ‘Can’t you see Captain Standish’s superiority? There is a style--an air--a _je ne sais quoi_.’