"You wouldn't find much in it, sir," said Archelaus, hastily, remembering yesterday's adventure. "At least not much to interest you. To tell the truth, the Governor sets very little store by these, though they look pretty enough in March month. But wanting to show his feelings in the matter of those trousers----" "You shall have another pair!" "Oh!" said Archelaus, in spite of himself, and though he had miserably foreseen the offer for ten minutes past. "And you may take back my thanks to the Commandant, and tell him that I hope, within the next few days, to pay him a call." Archelaus touched his forelock, bringing up his palm at the right military salute--in those days a complicated operation. To himself he breathed a thanksgiving that the Fair Lady (as he and the Treachers called Vashti) had taken her departure from Garrison Hill overnight. Ever since breakfast he had been feeling sadly dejected about it and so (if appearances might be trusted) had his master. There is a fearful joy, after all, in living on a volcano. But, alas, for Sergeant Archelaus! He was at this moment standing on the crust of a volcano, and that crust was momentarily wearing thinner. The shore beneath the great house of Inniscaw has two landing quays, of which the eastern (Archelaus had used the western) lies hidden from view of the terrace, and can be approached by a boat keeping close under St. Lide's shore. Engrossed in his lecture upon acclimatisation, the Lord Proprietor had missed to perceive a boat making for this eastern quay; and so had Archelaus, for the simpler reason that he stood with his back to the view. "Step into the house with me, and you shall make your choice between half-a-dozen pairs," the Lord Proprietor invited him. "If you are sure it's not troubling you," said Archelaus. "My good man--" began the Lord Proprietor, leading the way; and with that he turned about, surprised that Archelaus was not following. "Eh? What's the matter?" But Archelaus, speechless, was staring along the terrace to its eastern end, where, at the head of a flight of steps leading down among the shrubberies, a head had suddenly uprisen into view--a head in a gray bonnet with trimmings of subdued violet--the head of Miss Gabriel. "H'm!" said Miss Gabriel, and turned to Mr. and Mrs. Pope, who were mounting the stairway at her heels. CHAPTER XVII THE LORD PROPRIETOR RECEIVES A DOUBLE SHOCK "H'm!" said Miss Gabriel again, as she once more surveyed the shrinking Archelaus. "So you allowed you'd steal a march on me?" "I had no such thought, ma'am," stammered Archelaus. "You'll get no good out of it, anyway; and of that I warn you. Good morning, sir!"--this with a curtsey to the Lord Proprietor. "Good morning, ma'am! How d'ye do, Pope?--and your good lady is well, I hope? But to what do I owe this unexpected--er--honour?" "Him," said Miss Gabriel, nodding, and with scarcely a change of tone. "To Sergeant Archelaus, ma'am? Why, what has he been doing?"