The truth was rather apparent to Audley, that the pretty--nay, the beautiful and hazel-eyed Rose was nettled, and seriously so. Hitherto she had considered the handsome ex-Lieutenant of Hussars, and now of the Cornish Light Infantry, as her own peculiar property--even more than her sister. He was to be her papa's Aide-de-camp in India--she had settled this, _nem. con._; and while on leave at home, he was to be her dangler, secret slave, and open adorer--husband in the end perhaps, if nothing better "turned up;" for Audley's expectations from his father, the barrister, as one of a family of five, were slender enough; and here he was too probably smitten with a little chit-faced interloper whom no one knew anything about! There was a pause in the conversation, during which the carriage had passed St. Teath and St. Kew, with their quaint churches, and that of Egloshayle, on the right bank of the Camel, where it peeped up among the trees, when Rose returned to the charge. "And you actually swung together at the end of a rope." "At the end of a rope, as you say." "How romantic!--how charming!" "At least in one sense; yet I was glad enough when it was all over in safety." "What! though doubtless, as Byron says, 'The situation had its charm.'" "Fie, Rose--you quote _Don Juan_!" exclaimed Mabel. "And why should not I, Mab, if the passage seems so familiar to you?" "Rose, you are incorrigible!" "Well, Audley, your fellow-soldiers must be proud of you when they hear of this feat of arms." "We say _brother_-soldiers in the service," replied Trevelyan. "I submit to the correction; it is like one from papa, who deems all civilians stupid fellows. And so you think she is a paragon of loveliness?" continued Rose Trecarrel, so bent on the game of tormenting him, that she cared little for showing her hand. "I did not say so--do you, Rose?" "Call me _Miss_ Rose, if you please," said she, with a charming air of pique on her lovely little lip. "Well--where were we?" "About the beauty of the girl you rescued--were slung in a rope with. How funny!" said Mabel. "Of her beauty you can judge for yourselves; I have nothing to do with it," replied he wearily. "Fortunate for you," laughed Rose, "as the girl's position in society seems so dubious, Audley." "Call me Mr. Trevelyan, please, as we are to be on distant terms." "Let us only have you in India, where we shall be ere long," said she, shaking her parasol threateningly, "and I shall have papa to put you under arrest." "For what?" "Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman." "As how, my fair friend?' "Behaving rudely, petulantly, and insolently." "To a pretty girl?" "Yes--moreover, a daughter of the general on whose staff he is serving." "And the sentence of the court will be, dismissal from her presence for ever." "Have some mercy on him," said Mabel.