"
"I will not share it with you!" L'Isle exclaimed. "And you must shake
it off. What were life without hope, and high hope too!" and seizing
her hand he kissed it respectfully but with a fervor which indicated
the direction his hopes had taken.
"For shame, Colonel L'Isle!" she exclaimed, laughing, while she
snatched her hand away. "See how much shocked Jenny is at this liberty
taken with her mistress!"
L'Isle had forgotten Jenny Aiken's presence. He turned to look at her,
and the Scotch Hebe was plainly more amused than shocked at what she
was witnessing. Had L'Isle forgotten also his appointment to-morrow
morning at Alcantara? Perhaps not. But had Sir Rowland Hill now
appeared and demanded his opinion of the Andalusian levies, L'Isle
would have told him that he had no leisure to think of him or them.
But all sublunary pleasure has an end. Supper was over, and L'Isle
could devise no excuse for lingering here, but the pleasure of
listening to Lady Mabel, who seemed willing to amuse him as long as he
staid. After a pause, divining that he was about to take leave of her,
she said suddenly: "What an unreasonable fellow Sir Rowland Hill must
be! Because he cannot find any one to execute his delicate commissions
half so well as you do, he must be thrusting them all upon you! Does
he take you for a Popish saint, endowed with pluripresence, and able
to be in Andalusia, at Badajoz, Elvas, and Alcantara, all at one
time?"
"Not exactly so," said L'Isle, a good deal flattered at this
speech.
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