She was a person who never quite made up her mind about anything, but balanced every question gently, letting somebody else turn the scale for her--her maid, her governess, her daughter; she was always trying to have her own way, but never quite knew what her own way was, and just managed things skillfully enough to prevent other people having theirs. "If you are determined, I will see you to your carriage, and then the ball is over for me," said the Captain gallantly. He offered Mrs. Tempest his arm, and they went put into the vestibule, where the Captain left them for a few minutes, while he went into the porch to hasten the arrival of the carriage. "Where were you and Captain Winstanley all that time, Violet?" asked Mrs. Tempest. "In the garden." "How imprudent!" "Indeed, dear mamma, it wasn't cold." "But you were out there so long. What could you find to talk about all that time?" "We were not talking all the time, only enjoying the cool air and the moonlight." "Mrs. Tempest's carriage!" roared one of the door-keepers, as if it had been his doing that the carriage had appeared so quickly. Captain Winstanley was ready to hand them to their brougham. "Come and take a cup of tea to-morrow afternoon, and let as talk over the ball," said the widow. "With infinite pleasure." "Shall we drop you at your house?" "A thousand thanks--no--my lodgings are so close, I'll walk home." He went back for his overcoat, and then walked slowly away, without another glance at the crowded ball-room, or the corridors where the ladies who were waiting for their carriages were contriving to improve the time by a good deal of quiet, or even noisy, flirtation. His lodgings were on the Old Steine, close by. But he did not go home immediately. There are times in a man's life when four walls are to small too hold the bigness of his thoughts. Captain Winstanley paced the Marine Parade for half-an-hour or so before he went home. "_Va pour la mere_," he said to himself, at the close of that half hour's meditations; "she is really very nice, and the position altogether advantageous, perhaps as much as one has the right to expect in the general decadence of things. But, good heavens, how lovely that girl is! She is the first woman who ever looked me in the face and told me she disliked me; the first woman who ever gave me contemptuous looks and scornful words. And yet--for that very reason, perhaps--I----" The dark brows contracted over the keen eyes, which seemed closer than usual to the hawk nose. "Look to yourself, my queen, in the time to come," he said, as he turned his back on the silvery sea and moonlight sky. "You have been hard to me and I will be hard to you. It shall be measure for measure." CHAPTER XII. "I have no Wrong, where I can claim no Right."