320 The Leather Plater. 



out .to him, for it was too great an exertion for him to get out of 

 his carriage and hobble to the refreshment-room ; and as it was 

 well known that the old man in his young days had been a de- 

 voted admirer of the fair sex, the prettiest girl in the station always 

 tripped across the platform with the old K.C.B.'s mulligatawny. 

 He was a liberal-hearted, generous old fellow, and the presents he 

 gave away among these girls amounted to a considerable yearly 

 sum. The Spanish was the style of beauty which the old gentle- 

 man most admired j and even now, when in company with any of 

 his old comrades, he used enthusiastically to dwell upon the con- 

 quests he had made among the dark-eyed " donnas " in Madrid, 

 Seville, and other of the cities of sunny Spain, when campaigning 

 with the "Iron Duke." 



On the very day after Annie had been installed as queen of the 

 ceremonies at the Resborough Refreshment Rooms, the twelve 

 o'clock train brought up the old K.C.B. ; and his very respectable- 

 looking valet, who always travelled with him, came into the room 

 to order his soup. He saw at a glance that Annie's was a new 

 face, and moreover that such a face had never been seen at that 

 counter before. She had heard a little about the old officer already 

 from the other girls, some of whom had boasted of the presents 

 they had received from him, so she was not at all unwilling to 

 carry out his soup on a neat little tray. The old officer fairly 

 started when the valet opened the carriage-door, and Annie handed 

 him in his tray. Visions of the sunny South flitted across his 

 memory, and the images of stately flashing-eyed donnas appeared 

 on the tablet of his mind with all the freshness of yesterday. 



Annie handed him his soup, adjusted his couch, spoke to him so 

 kindly and tenderly, and, in fact, played her part so well that the 

 old man declared to his valet that he had never seen such a girl in 

 England before ; and every time he saw her the more he liked her. 

 He was up and down the line now more often than before, and no 

 one ever brought him his soup but Annie. On her sixth visit 

 to the carriage she came back with a splendid diamond ring on her 

 finger. This was not, however, the ring she was playing for j a 



