THE SMUGGLER, 49 



had seen him, for hers were the eyes which had watched his 

 approach from the window, so that she felt as if she knew him 

 better than any of them. 



There was something very winning in the frank and cordial 

 greeting with which she met him, and in an instant it had 

 established a sort of communication between them which 

 would have taken hours, perhaps days, to bring about with 

 her sister. As Sir Edward Digby did not come there to fall 

 in love, he would fain have resisted such influences, even at 

 the beginning; and perhaps the words of old Mr. Croyland 

 had somewhat put him upon his guard. But it was of no use 

 being upon his guard; for, fortify himself as strongly as he 

 would, Zara went through all his defences in an instant; and, 

 seeming to take it for granted that they were to be great 

 friends, and that there was not the slightest obstacle whatever 

 to their being perfectly familiar in a lady-like and gentleman- 

 like manner, of course they were so in five minutes, though 

 he was a soldier who had seen some service, and she an inex- 

 perienced girl just out of her teens. But all women have a 

 sort of experience of their own ; or, if experience be not the 

 right name, an intuition in matters where the other sex is 

 concerned, which supplies to them very rapidly a great part 

 of that which long converse with the world bestows on men. 

 Too true that it does not always act as a safeguard to their 

 own hearts; true that it does not always guide them right in 

 their own actions ; but still it does not fail to teach them the 

 best means of winning where they wish to win ; and if they 

 do not succeed, it is far more frequently that the cards which 

 they hold are not good, than that they play the game unskil- 

 fully. 



Whether Sir Robert Croyland had or had not any fore- 

 thought in his invitation of Sir Edward Digby, and, like a 

 prudent father, judged that it would be quite as well his 

 youngest daughter should marry a wealthy baronet, he was 

 too wise to let anything like design appear; and though he 

 suffered the young officer to pursue his conversation with 

 Zara for two or three minutes longer than he had done with 

 her sister, he soon interposed, by taking the first opportunity 

 of telling his guest the names of those whom he had invited 

 to meet him that day at dinner. 



"We shall have but a small party," he said, in a somewhat 



D 



