John Caldigate

ery unimportant matter of the dancing powers of the ladies who were manoeuvring before them, that Caldigate hardly knew how to tra

done, should be graceful. A woman may at any rate move her feet in accordance with time,

Call

is time knew ev

s Mrs. Ca

knew very well that

ely the thud of her footfall eve

t, fair, a

tious and had a glimmer of taste, she might do better than that. You see that girl with the green sc

d go and t

they would not be taught; and I shoul

o and dance with

I

rank to join the superior, the rule of demarcation had so far been broken that a pretty girl who was known to some of the first-clas

me out and ask me to join them? That is a qu

little

and because of your ragged old hat, and I am not quite sure that your shoes ar

aps i

at a woman of whom nobody knows anything is always held to be disrepu

our friends

ke a sort of interest in me, though they really know nothing about me. And I have already lost any good whi

at did

ing to have a woman to speak to, even though I had not a thought in common with her;- though she was to my feeling as inferior to myself as I no doubt am thought to be

is a

hand speaks to me, and that you and Mr. Shand are the two gentlemen we have among us. There are, no dou

t imp

do you

ot talk as we

close to them in the dance. 'There is no harm in Miss Green talking by the hour together with the doctor, because she is comfortably placed. She has got an old f

else been h

oubt with the idea that he may at last be dri

N

a mo

N

hous

d. I have no female

r mother would quite expect that your sister should in time have a lover, bu

I thought housemaids g

is stronger

You are not a housemaid, and

if I say my outward woman you

nk I s

the Captain and Mrs. Crompton make up the mistress between them. And the worst of it all is, that though

se, can take ca

they are maligning me, I can tell myself that they are beneath me, and that I care nothing for them. I shall do nothing which will enable any one

The woman's condition was to be pitied, whether it had been produced with or without fault on her own part. To be alone is always sad,- even

o go to bed,' he said

ll I see some quartermaster eying me suspiciously and then I creep down into the little hole which I occupy

a turn

I be a coward?' Then she put her hand upon his arm. 'And you,' she said, 'why are not you dancing in the other

cket best,- and my

eople eat pic-nic dinners out in the woods occasionally, so t

er mystery, she, perhaps, had been

nd to be

ng with some vast treasure. I

em to d

uld be common and hardly worth the doing. Will

ope

en when I see them smoking! It seems to me that nothing is wanting to them. Women have their needlew

idle. I read a goo

ps than most young women of my age. I came away in

lend yo

ill promise to ta

. It is very absurd, but full of life from beginni

Spratt. He may be lively

ork, perhaps but very thoughtful, if

te th

erhaps, but very interesting? Or "Green Grow the Rushes O," by Mrs. Tremaine? None o

heir girls are so unlovely, and th

t," of which I will defy you to find the s

at deal too

on't give you any trouble, because you w

he beginning to the end. I don't think I care

ry taste; but at last it was settled that on the next morning he should supply her with what choice he had among the poets. Then at about midnight they parted, and Caldigate, as he found his

f it with Mrs. Smith,' said Shand as

e times go on board ship. Is

d the hare; if you choose to run it I

right to complain because I have been talking to Mrs. Smith;- unl

likely to make he

. She is good-looking, clever, well-educated, and would be well-mannered wer

gone so far as that,

o me. Now I think I'll go to sleep,

to a state of dozing,- was that of Hester Bolton, whose voice he had hardly heard, who had barely spoken to him;- the tips of whose fingers he had only just touched. If there was any one thing fixed on his mind it was that, as soon as he had put together a large lump of gold, he would go back to Cambridge and win Hester Bolton to be his wife. But yet what a singular woman was this Mrs. Smith! As to marrying her, that of course had been a joke produced by the petulance of his snoring friend. He began to dislike Shand, because he did snore so loudly, and drank so much bottled ale, and smelt so strongly of cavendish tobacco. Mrs. Smith was at any rate much too good for Shand. Su

le Shand abused him for the disturbance he made. On the top, lying on the other volumes, which were as he had placed them, was a little book, prettily bound, by no means new, which he was sure had never been placed there by himself. He took it up, and, standing in the centre of the cabin, between the light of the porthole and Dick's bed, he examined

suddenly, emerging with his head

id Caldigate, discon

ou going to

something to len

mbering, as we are so apt to remember the old thing that had

t steal

did; but I'm sure i

ink it is in bad hands, sh

he gave it you, she wa

't see

you would not lend a book with my

tion was completed,- which, including his lavations, occupied about five minutes,- he went up on the deck with the books for Mrs. Smith in his hand, and with Thomson's 'Seasons' in his pocket. So the poor girl had

accosted by the Captain. The Captain was a pleasant-looking, handsome man, about forty-five years of age,

I hope you find yourself fai

l, thank yo

is anythin

at we have a ri

and your friends to come astern among us so

understand th

for the sake of experience. If you only kn

are

ugh of that. You find yourself among some quee

dy is ve

the Captain laughed, as though it had only been a joke,- this allusion to the women. But Caldigate knew th