254 ^-^'^ i?^«/ Charlotte. 



upon Cursiter, steam-launching to nowliere in particular and 

 back again, had begun to pall. He looked forward to his 

 subaltern's return with an eagerness quite out of proportion 

 to Mr. Hawkins' gifts of conversation or companionship ; 

 solitude and steam-launching were all very well in modera- 

 tion, but he could not get the steam-launch in after dinner 

 to smoke a pipe, and solitude tended to unsettling reflections 

 on the vanity of his present walk of life. Hawkins, when 

 he came^ was certainly a variant in the monotony, but 

 Cursiter presently discovered that he would have to add to 

 the task of amusing himself the still more arduous one of 

 amusing his companion. Hawkins dawdled, moped, and 

 grumbled, and either spent the evenings in moody silence, 

 or in endless harangues on the stone-broken nature of his 

 finances, and the contrariness of things in general. He ad- 

 mitted his engagement to Miss Coppard with about as ill 

 a grace as was possible, and when rallied about it, became 

 sulky and snappish, but of Francie he never spoke, and 

 Cursiter augured no good from these indications. Captain 

 Cursiter knew as little as the rest of Lismoyle as to the 

 reasons of Miss Fitzpatrick's abrupt disappearance from 

 Tally Ho, but, unlike the generality of Francie's acquaint- 

 ances, had accepted the fact unquestioningly, and with a 

 simple gratitude to Providence for its interposition in the 

 matter. If only partridge- shooting did not begin in Ireland 

 three weeks later than in any civilised country, thought this 

 much harassed child's guide, it would give them both some- 

 thing better to do than loafing about the lake in the 

 Serpolette. Well, anyhow, the 20th was only three days off 

 now, and Dysart had given them leave to shoot as much as 

 they liked over Bruff, and, thank the Lord, Hawkins was 

 fond of shooting, and there would be no more of this talk of 

 running up to Dublin for two or three days to have his 

 teeth overhauled, or to get a new saddle, or some nonsense 

 of that kind. Neither Captain Cursiter nor Mr. Hawkins 

 paid visits to anyone at this time ; in fact, were never seen 

 except when, attired in all his glory, one or the other took 

 the soldiers to church, and marched them back again with 

 as little delay as possible ; so that the remnant of Lismoyle 

 society pronounced them very stuck-up and unsociable, and 

 mourned for the days of the Tipperary Foragers. 



