“I’ll wear thy colours in my cap, thy picture next my heart,” muttered D’Orville; and then, carried away by the impulse of the moment, and forgetful of all his worldly prudence and good resolutions, he hurried impetuously on--“Listen to me, Mrs. Delaval; I may be presumptuous to speak thus to you on such short acquaintance, but you must have seen my regard--my attention--my devotion; I cannot bear to see you wasted here, thrown away in such a place as this--you who are meant for society and brilliancy, and everything that is worth having in life. Will you rely upon _me_? will you suffer me to rescue you from this obscure lot? will you consider?” Mary stopped dead short, drew herself up, and looked her admirer full in the face: “I am so unused to this sort of language, Captain D’Orville,” she observed, without a vestige of emotion, “that I do not clearly understand you. If what you have to say is fit for me to hear, pray explain yourself; if not, I wish you a good evening;” and pausing for an instant while she kept him, as it were, “chained in her eye,” she turned round, and walked calmly and deliberately straight home to Miss Primrose’s. The hussar was completely taken aback by the simplicity with which his attack had been repulsed. There he stood, opposite the grey horse, utterly confounded, and not knowing whether to advance or retreat. Should he laugh the thing off, and descend to the meanness of pretending he had been in jest? He could not--no, he _dared_ not meet that calm, contemptuous eye. What an eye it was, and how he felt its influence even now! Should he hurry after her, and make a _bonâ fide_ proposal of marriage, such as no woman could receive but as a compliment? Psha! what! marry a governess? What would the mess say, and Lacquers, and his brother profligates? No, the good grey horse was galloped back to barracks, and D’Orville was the life and soul of the supper-party, which he returned just in time to join. What a contrast it was, with its brilliant lights, flushed countenances, noise, excitement, and revelry, to the still summer evening, and the pure, sweet face of Mary Delaval. [Illustration: “She turned round and walked calmly and deliberately home.” _Page 56_] The wealthy manufacturer’s lady thought Captain D’Orville very absent and _distrait_ next day in the gardens; but from that time till he went on leave he devoted himself exclusively to her service, and she never dreamed that there was such a being in the world as the handsome governess at Miss Primrose’s, or the loss that establishment had sustained in its junior assistant’s departure.