"
"There is the _Burlington Castle_, his own uncle's ship: she is
now fitted up as a hospital, with nurses and every appliance. He will
soon get well on board her."
There were other and still more potent aids to convalescence on board
the _Burlington Castle_. A band of devoted female nurses tended the
sick; and amongst them, demurely clad in a black dress, her now sad
white face half hidden under an immense coif, was one who answered to
the name of Miss Hidalgo.
It was Mariquita, placed there by the kindness of the military
authorities, anxious to make all the return possible by helping in the
good work. The relationship of the captain to Stanislas was remembered
by Colonel Blythe, and the _Burlington Castle_ seemed the fittest
place to receive the poor girl.
Good Captain Faulks had been taken into the secret.
"Poor child!" he had said. "I will watch over her for dear Stanny's
sake. I was fond of that lad, and she shall be like a daughter to me."
At first she seemed quite dazed and stupefied by her grief. She gave
up her lover as utterly lost, and would not listen to the consolation
and encouragement offered.
"He'll turn up, my dear," said Captain Faulks; "you'll see. He was
not saved from drowning to die by a Russian rope. Wait; he'll weather
the storm."
Mariquita would shake her head hopelessly and go about her appointed
task with an unflagging but despairing diligence that was touching to
see.
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