"I would rather not," decidedly. He looked at the pretty face in some alarm. It had a very resolute air. Would she really carry out her threat of staying behind? He did not know much about American girls, but he had heard that they managed their own affairs rather more than their English sisters. This one looked exceedingly like the heroine of that familiar ballad: "When she will, she will, depend on't, And when she won't, she won't, And there's an end on't." She glanced up and saw him pulling at the ends of his mustache with an injured air, and a dark frown on his brow. "Why do you look so mad? I should think you would be glad I'm not going." "I am vexed. I wasn't aware that I looked mad. In England we put mad people into insane asylums," he replied, rather stiffly. "Thank you. I understand. Old England is giving Young America a rhetorical hint. Why do you look so vexed, then, Captain Lancaster?" "Because there will be no end of a row in Lancaster Park when I go there, because you have not come with me." "Will there, really?" "Yes; and my aunt, Lady Lancaster, who has promised to give me all her money when she dies, will cut me off with a shilling because I have disobeyed her orders and disappointed Mrs. West." The blue-gray eyes opened to their widest extent. "No!" she said. "Yes, indeed," he replied. "Then she must be a very hard woman," said Miss West, in a decided tone. "She is," he replied, laconically. "You are certain that she would not give you the money?" anxiously. "Quite certain," he answered. "And--have you none of your own?" "Only my pay in the army," he admitted, laughing within himself at her naïve curiosity. "Is that much?" she went on, gravely. "Enough to keep me in boots and hats," he answered, with an owl-like gravity. "And this Lady Lancaster--your aunt--does she give you the rest?" persevered Leonora. He did not want to be rude, but he burst out laughing. She looked up into the bright blue eyes and reddened warmly. "I dare say you think me curious and ill-bred," she said. "Oh, no, no, not at all. I am intensely flattered by the interest you take in my affairs." "It is only because I do not want to be the means of your losing that money, if you want it. Do you?" "Indeed I do. Anybody would be glad to have twenty thousand a year," he replied. "So much as that? Then, of course, I must not be the cause of your losing it," said Leonora, gravely. "Then you will go with me?" he cried, with quite a load lifted from his mind by her unexpected concession. "Ye-es. I suppose I shall have to go," she answered. "A thousand thanks. I thought you would relent," he said. "And will you be ready to sail with me to-morrow?" "Oh, yes, quite ready. My trunks have been packed several weeks, and I have been only waiting for you to come," she answered, promptly.