Captain Haig, posted in a coign of vantage, pelted the occupants with the best of his assortment. He had no eyes, or flowers, for others, not even for the cart laden with sheaves of corn and pretty girls and drawn by oxen, nor for the gorgeous yellow coach, or yet the charming Japanese; his flowers were only for Verona. Once he had the good fortune to catch her eye, and as she passed she smiled and tossed him a rose. This he kissed with fervour and stowed away as if it were some holy relic, for Malcolm Haig was really in love. So much in love, that he actually attended a charity bazaar in the extravagant and foolish hope of finding _her_ within; but unfortunately Miss Chandos was elsewhere, playing golf, and his temerity cost him three sovereigns. His leave was ebbing hourly--his luck was dead out. Sir Horace, too, was selfishly absorbed in his own affairs and the progress of his cure, and had never given his unhappy nephew a helping hand since that first notable morning. At last Fortune smiled! Captain Haig was returning from a sad and solitary ramble in the woods, when to his surprise, and, needless to add, joy, he came upon Miss Chandos and Dog Darling. She was seated on the trunk of a fallen tree with the enviable animal in her lap. "Oh, this is fortunate!" she exclaimed, "I am in rather a quandary, like the ferryman with the fox and goose and corn. Dog Darling has cut his foot, and I don't know how I am to get him home. I dare not leave him; he might stray, or be stolen, and, much as I love him--I cannot carry him!" "No, indeed," agreed the delighted lover. "Pray how do you happen to be here all alone?" "I was driving with Auntie from Nauheim, I got out to walk back the rest of the way, and give Dog Darling a run. He has cut his foot on a broken bottle, poor dear; so wicked of people to leave their picnics loose." "I see, his poor paw is badly cut," said Malcolm; "shall I bandage it up?" "I shall be most grateful if you will, but I warn you that he _may_ bite you!" "And then you'll have to bandage me! Eh, is it a bargain?" "I will guarantee to hold his mouth quite firmly, and you can please take my handkerchief." "No, no; mine is the best," said the impromptu surgeon, and in five minutes the business was successfully accomplished. "I think he has sense to know that I mean well," said Captain Haig, "and now I propose to carry him home; it is not more than a mile." "But he is so heavy!" objected the young lady. "If you were to go back and send a carriage to fetch us--how would that do?" Naturally this arrangement did not appeal to her companion, and he replied with deliberate untruth: "The patient is a mere feather! You lay him in my arms and I'll do nurse as if to the manner born." Having effected this amicable arrangement without any contretemps, the pair set off, the young man carrying the dog, who proved to be a dead weight and exceedingly irritable and sorry for himself.