“The word shot from his lips like a ball from a cannon. He sprang from the boat and began to stride to and fro in the sand, his nostrils dilated and his eyes fixed. (He used a dreadful expression, too, which was not at all patriotic, though it did end in —nation.) Presently he turned quickly towards me, and leaning forward, with his hands grasping the gunwale of the boat, eagerly asked, ‘But, Lucy, surely you do not think that—that she—is—what you call interested?’ “‘She has not betrayed any symptoms of that character.’ “‘Thank you,’ said he, seizing my hand with a grip that made me wince; and he began to stride to and fro again, till I stopped him. “‘But, Mr. Don,’ said I, ‘though she may not be interested now, it does not follow that she may not become—’ “‘Never fear,’ said he, biting his lip with a look of fierce determination, and striding up and down again. “Thinking to soothe him: ‘Be careful! Remember, we girls think you a handsome, fascinating dog; so don’t raise false hopes.’ “‘No danger, no danger!’ replied he, earnestly, and without even a smile for my compliment. ‘What a fool I have been!’ “He stood reflectively stroking his moustache for a while, and I thought the scene over, when turning impetuously upon me, and seizing me by both wrists with a grasp of steel, ‘You don’t think so?’ he cried. ‘Tell me you do not, for heaven’s sake!’ “He seemed totally unconscious of the force he was using, for he jerked me against the gunwale with such violence that I should have been hurt had I not been so frightened. Oh, what eyes he had! I can feel their glare now, as I remember how he held me as in a vise, and, bringing his face close to mine, looked me through and through. “‘Tell you what?’ I gasped. “‘Lucy—she—the poor child—she has not—fallen in love with me: you know! Tell me so, for God’s sake!’ “His fingers sank into my wrists, and his fearful eyes burned into my brain. “‘No! I am _sure_ she has not!’ “‘Thanks, thanks, thanks!’ he cried; and lifting both my hands to his lips, he covered them with fervid kisses. I was not surprised; I was past that point. Had he thrown his arms around me, I honestly believe I should have been neither astonished nor angry.” “I wish he had,” said Charley, musing. “Poor boy, poor boy!—well, well!” and, sighing, he fixed his eyes upon the fire. Alice, with a look of tender sympathy, took her husband’s hand in hers. ----- [1] How strange, even pathetic, is the sound of these military metaphors from a woman’s lips.—_Ed._ CHAPTER L.