"Oh, by-the-bye, Eugenia, I was forgetting to tell you. I expect two or three gentlemen to dine here the day after to-morrow. Mr Foulkes, the school-inspector, you know, Mr Payne, and Frank Thurston--there is just a chance of Gerald, but Frank hardly expects him so soon, he has been detained in town by business--and I asked Captain Chancellor, the Dalrymples' friend. He called on me yesterday at my office to get a little local information he required, and I was much pleased with him. He seems very intelligent, and superior to most young men of his standing. It must be dull for him here--very different from a place where there is a large garrison--but he says he likes it better." Eugenia hardly heard her father's last words: she was conscious only of a rush of tumultuous, bewildering delight. What had become of her strong-mindedness, her self-control, all her grand resolutions? She felt that Sydney was purposely not looking at her; it was almost worse than if she had been. Never mind! Sydney soon would be able to judge for herself as to whether she were, after all, so very silly. In any case this was not of her doing--this unhoped-for fulfilment of her dreams. Dreams she had not encouraged, had kept down with a strong hand. It had been right to do so; might not this news of her father's be looked upon as her deserved reward? The idea was a pleasant one; it excused to herself her own extreme, unreasonable happiness. The rest of the dinner appeared to her a very feast of the gods; she herself was radiant with happiness--it seemed to sparkle about her in a hundred different ways. Even her father was struck with her brightness and beauty. He held her back for a moment as she passed him when she and Sydney left the room, and kissed her fondly--an unusual thing for him to do, and it added to the girl's enchantment. Only Sydney seemed in low spirits this evening, but she roused herself at Eugenia's first word of reproach, and wisely refrained, from the slightest renewal of her former warning. Eugenia's moods were seldom of long duration. A little cloud came over her sun even before they were joined by their father from the dining-room. Its cause was a very matter-of-fact one. "Oh, Sydney!" she exclaimed, suddenly. "How can we manage to have a very nice dinner on Thursday? We must have everything good and well arranged, and there are some things cook never sends up nicely. And don't you think we might walk to Barton's nursery-gardens to-morrow and get some flowers? I am sure papa would like everything to look nice." Sydney professed herself quite willing to speak to cook about exerting herself to the utmost--to walk any distance and in any direction Eugenia wished.