“I really could not decide in such a hurry,” said Ralph, with a glance at Margaret and Elinor, “but we might all go on to Brussels perhaps, a little later on.” “I don’t think you must buoy up the hopes of the Baroness and Miss Brandt with that idea,” remarked Miss Leyton, coldly, “because I am sure that Mrs. Pullen has no intention of doing anything of the sort. If you wish to accompany Madame Gobelli’s party, you had better make your arrangements without any reference to us!” “All right! If you prefer it, I will,” he answered in the same indifferent tone. “_Who_ is that young lady sitting opposite, with the dark eyes?” demanded Doctor Phillips of Mrs. Pullen. “The same I spoke to you of, upstairs, as having been kind to baby--Miss Harriet Brandt!” “I knew a Brandt once,” he answered. “Has she anything to do with the West Indies?” “O! yes! she comes from Jamaica! She is an orphan, the daughter of Doctor Henry Brandt, and has been educated in the Ursuline Convent there! She is a young lady with an independent fortune, and considered to be quite a catch in Heyst!” “And you and Miss Leyton are intimate with her?” “She has attached herself very much to us since coming here. She has few friends, poor girl!” “Will you introduce me?” “Miss Brandt, my friend, Doctor Phillips, wishes for an introduction to you.” The usual courtesies passed between them, and then the doctor said, “I fancy I knew your father, Miss Brandt, when I was quartered in Jamaica with the Thirteenth Lances. Did he not live on the top of the Hill, on a plantation called Helvetia?” “That was the name of our place,” replied Harriet, “but I left it when I was only eleven. My trustee, Mr. Trawler, lives there now!” “Ah! Trawler the attorney! I have no doubt he made as much out of the property as he could squeeze.” “Do you mean that he cheated me?” asked Harriet, naïvely. “God forbid! my dear young lady. But he was a great crony of your father’s, and a d--d sharp lawyer, and those sort of gentry generally feather their own nest pretty well, in payment of their friendship.” “He can’t do me any harm now,” said Harriet, “for I have my property in my own hands!” “Quite right! quite right! that is, if you’re a business woman,” rejoined the doctor. “And are you travelling all by yourself?” Harriet was about to answer in the affirmative, when the Baroness took the words out of her mouth. “No, Sir, she ain’t! She came over with her friend, Mademoiselle Brimont, and now she’s under my chaperonage. She’s a deal too ’andsome, ain’t she? to be travelling about the world alone, with her money-bags under her arm. My name’s the Baroness Gobelli,--this is my ’usband, Baron Gustave Gobelli, and this is my little boy, Bobby Bates--by my first ’usband, you’ll understand--and when you return to London, if you like to come and see Miss Brandt at our ’ouse--the Red ’Ouse, ’Olloway, we shall be very pleased to see you!”