Charlotte Knox, her brow knit, her head held erect, walked away after giving us all a searching look apiece. "I, like Dicky, saw Collinson call her out, and I thought I might as well see what he wanted to be after," Sam whispered to me. "I did not see Dicky at all, though, until he came into the laurels with you." "He is talking to her now," I said, directing Sam's attention to the captain. "I wonder whether I ought to tell Dr. Knox?" resumed Sam. "What do you think, Johnny Ludlow? She is so young, and somehow I don't trust him. Dan doesn't, either." "Dan told me he did not." "Dan fancies he is after her money. It would be a temptation to some people,--seven thousand pounds. Yet he seems to have plenty of his own." "If he did marry her he could not touch the money for three or four years to come." "Oh, couldn't he, though," answered Sam, taking me up. "He could touch it next day." "I thought she did not come into it till she was of age, and that Dr. Knox was trustee." "That's only in case she does not marry. If she marries it goes to her at once. Here comes Aunt Jenkins!" The old lady, as spruce as you please, in a satin gown, was shaking hands with Mrs. Knox. But she looked half silly: and, may I never be believed again, if she did not begin to nod directly she sat down. "Do you hail from India? as the Americans phrase it," I suddenly ask of Captain Collinson, when chance pinned us together in a corner of the supper-room, and he could not extricate himself. "Hail from India!" he repeated. "Was I born there, I conclude you mean?" "Yes." "Not exactly. I went there, a child, with my father and mother. And, except for a few years during my teens, when I was home for education, I have been in India ever since. Why do you ask?" "For no particular reason. I was telling Madame St. Vincent this evening that it seemed to me I had seen you before; but I suppose it could not be. Shall you be going back soon?" "I am not sure. Possibly in the autumn, when my leave will expire: not till next year if I can get my leave extended. I shall soon be quitting Lefford." "Shall you?" "Must do it. I have to make my bow at a levée; and I must be in town for other things as well. I should like to enjoy a little of the season there: it may be years before the opportunity falls to my lot again. Then I have some money to invest: I think of buying an estate. Oh, I have all sorts of business to attend to, once I am in London." "Where's the use of buying an estate if you are to live in India?" "I don't intend to live in India always," he answered, with a laugh. "I shall quit the service as soon as ever I can, and settle down comfortably in the old country. A home of my own will be of use to me then." Now it was that very laugh of Captain Collinson's that seemed more familiar to me than all the rest of him. That I had heard it before, ay, and heard it often, I felt sure. At least, I should have felt sure but for its seeming impossibility.