The Real Charlotte. 325 



her exceeding prettiness, exasperated him in a way that 

 he could not have explained, and though the visit did not 

 fail of excitement, he could not flatter himself that he was 

 taking quite the part in it that he had expected. Certainly 

 Mrs. Lambert was not maintaining the role that he had 

 allotted her ; huffiness was one thing, but infernal swagger 

 was quite another. It is painful for a young man of Mr. 

 Hawkins' type to realise that an affection that he has 

 inspired can wane and even die, and Francie's self- 

 possession was fast robbing him of his own. 



" I hear that your regiment is after being ordered to 

 India ? " she said cheerfully, when it became apparent that 

 Hawkins could find no more to say. 



" Yes, so they say ; next trooping season will about see 

 us, I expect, and they're safe to send us to Aldershot first, 

 so we may be out of this at any minute." He glanced at 

 her as he spoke, to see how she took it. 



" Oh, that'll be very nice for you/' answered Francie, still 

 more cheerfully. " I suppose," she went on with her most 

 aristocratic drawl, " that you'll be married before you go 

 out ? " 



She had arranged the delivery of this thrust before she 

 came downstairs, and it glided from her tongue as easily as 

 she could have wished. 



" Yes, I daresay I shall," he answered defiantly, though 

 the provokingly ready blush of a fair man leaped to his face. 

 He looked at her, angry with himself for reddening, and 

 angrier with her for blazoning her indifference, by means of 

 a question that seemed to him the height of bad taste and 

 spitefulness. As he looked, the colour that burned in his 

 own face repeated itself in hers with slow relentlessness ; at 

 the sight of it a sudden revulsion of feeling brought him 

 dangerously near to calling her by her name, with reproaches 

 for her heartlessness, but before the word took form she had 

 risen quickly, and, saying something incoherent about 

 ordering tea, moved towards the bell, her head turned from 

 him with the helpless action of a shy child. 



Hawkins, hardly knowing what he was doing, started 

 forward, and as he did so the door opened, and a well-known 

 voice announced, 



'♦ Miss Charlotte Mullen ] " 



