That very evening, a tall, good-looking man, in undress uniform, might have been seen, as indeed he was seen, by Miss Primrose’s housemaid, walking a magnificent grey charger, with its bridle over his arm, close to the foot-pavement in Crozier Street, deep in what seemed an interesting conversation with a beautiful woman in black. “So you don’t believe we unfortunates ever _are_ disinterested, Mrs. Delaval? I am afraid you have a very bad opinion of the whole sex,” said the gentleman, with a slight tremor in his voice, extremely unusual to him, and contrasting strangely with the steady, measured tones of his companion. “I cannot give an opinion where I have so little knowledge, Captain D’Orville,” was the reply; she began to know him well now, and liked to talk _out_ with him, as a woman never does with a man for whom she cares; “I can only judge by what I see. It appears to me that you all live wholly and entirely for yourselves. If you are clever, you pervert your talents to get the better of your friends in every allowable species of dishonesty; if you are brave, your courage is but made subservient to your vanity and self-aggrandisement; if you are rich, your money is devoted to your own indulgence and your own purposes. I never hear, now-a-days, of anything noble, anything disinterested, such as I have read of. But I am talking great nonsense,” said Mary, checking herself, and smiling at her own enthusiasm, unconscious of the burning admiration with which the hussar’s eyes were riveted on her face. Like all _fast_ reckless men, there was a spice of romance about D’Orville, and he liked to bring out the latent powers of a mind somewhat akin to his own daring intellect, more particularly when that mind belonged to such a person as his companion. “I could prove that men _may_ be disinterested, even in the nineteenth century,” said he, and again his voice trembled as it sank almost to a whisper--“that there _are_ men who would give up station, profession, ambition, everything,--the present they enjoy, and the future they look forward to,--for the sake of one whom they esteemed--admired--in short, whom they _loved_.” She would not understand him, and the calm brow was as calm as ever while she answered, “I cannot think so. I have seen quite enough as a child, for you know I am half a soldier myself, to give me no inclination to prosecute my studies in human nature. And yet I have my ideal of a hero too, but in these days there is no such character as a Leonidas, a Curtius (you know, we governesses must not forget our history), a William Tell, or a Montrose.”