"All this quite turned my head, and I couldn't say any thing; but sat on my saddle, devouring the little thing with my eyes, and drinking in the wonderful look which she threw at me. At last the carriage started, and the ladies, with a pleasant smile, drove on. I think I stood still there for about five minutes, until I was nearly run down by one of those beastly Neapolitan calèches loaded with twenty or thirty natives." "See here, old man, what a confoundedly good memory you have! You remember no end of a lot of things, and give all her speeches verbatim. What a capital newspaper reporter you'd make!" "Oh, it's only _her_ words, you know. She quickens my memory, and makes a different man of me." "By Jove!" "Yes, old chap, a different man altogether." "So I say, by Jove! Head turned, eyes distorted, heart generally upset, circulation brought up to fever point, peace of mind gone, and a general mania in the place of the old self-reliance and content." "Not content, old boy; I never had much of that." "Well, we won't argue, will we? But as to the child-angel--what next? You'll call again?" "Of course." "When?" "To-morrow." "Strike while the iron is hot, hey? Well, old man, I'll stand by you. Still I wish you could find out who her people are, just to satisfy a legitimate curiosity." "Well, I don't know the Fays, but Lady Dalrymple is her aunt; and I know, too, that she is a niece of Sir Gilbert Biggs." "What!" cried Hawbury, starting. "Who? Sir what?" "Sir Gilbert Biggs." "Sir Gilbert Biggs?" "Yes." "Sir Gilbert Biggs! By Jove! Are you sure you are right? Come, now. Isn't there some mistake?" "Not a bit of a mistake; she's a niece of Sir Gilbert. I remember that, because the name is a familiar one." "Familiar!" repeated Hawbury; "I should think so. By Jove!" Hawbury here relapsed into silence, and sat with a frown on his face, and a puzzled expression. At times he would mutter such words as, "Deuced odd!" "Confounded queer!" "What a lot!" "By Jove!" while Dacres looked at him in some surprise. "Look here, old fellow!" said he at last. "Will you have the kindness to inform me what there is in the little fact I just mentioned to upset a man of your size, age, fighting weight, and general coolness of blood?" "Well, there is a deuced odd coincidence about it, that's all." "Coincidence with what?" "Well, I'll tell some other time. It's a sore subject, old fellow. Another time, my boy. I'll only mention now that it's the cause of my present absence from England. There's a bother that I don't care to encounter, and Sir Gilbert Biggs's nieces are at the bottom of it." "You don't mean this one, I hope?" cried Dacres, in some alarm. "Heaven forbid! By Jove! No. I hope not." "No, I hope not, by Jove!" echoed the other. "Well, old man," said Hawbury, after a fit of silence, "I suppose you'll push matters on now, hard and fast, and launch yourself into matrimony?" "Well--I--suppose--so," said Dacres, hesitatingly.