time Dominique's arm swung back the door with less pomposity and Dominique's voice was a trifle less emphatic as he ushered in "M. le Capitaine."

Again Mary and I scuttled about like young rabbits and then stood still staring shyly, and again our embarrassment was met by the calmest nonchalance. The second visitor was a man of much more presence than the Commandant. He had the polished graceful ease of a man of the world, and though quite as good natured as the Commandant, his good nature pleased us less, because it was less spontaneous.

"I hope you will stay some time at Teschoun," he said looking at Mary. "The ennui of our lives here is terrible. Think of it, Mademoiselle, we have no theatre, no music, no society, and no domestic life. To find a lady here is like the miraculous advent of an angel." Mary blushed and had no courage to make the sprightly answers she had made the Commandant. The fine 1 air and grand compliments of the Capitaine overcame the little thing, but she looked distractingly pretty as she sat opposite to him, smiling and blushing when he addressed her and only saying, Oui, Monsieur, or "Non, Monsieur," or at most "Vraiment, Monsieur."

66

"Then Mademoiselle shall ride my little barb; there is hardly such a horse anywhere, Mademoiselle, so docile, so sweet-tempered, and so sure-footed. It is not every lady I would trust with my little horse, but I know how an English-woman can sit in the saddle, and I am proud to offer it to Mademoiselle."

"Je vous remercie bien, Monsieur." Then the Capitaine talked of Christmasday.

We will have a little fête champêtre in Mademoiselle's honour," he said; "we will go to the great waterfalls of Boisel-Kebir, and breakfast there. I will invite my Commandant and all the officers of the garrison. Monsieur can make a sketch, and Mademoiselle can gather flowers."

We expressed ourselves delighted at the proposal, and, after promising to send Mary ostrichs' eggs and jackals' skins to take to England, the Capitaine left us.

what with the Commandant's dinners and the Capitaine's fêtes champêtres," I said, "and if the Lieutenant

"M. le Lieutenant," announced Dominique, opening the door calmly, as if nothing was the matter.

We had been twice so shocked and surprised that we had no more embarrassment to expend on the Lieutenant. Indeed, he was rather shy himself, which was the very thing to reassure a warm-hearted sympathetic little creature like my sister; and they began to talk together without any effort. He was young and handsome, with a very frank, pleasant expression.

"I am afraid that it is useless for me to offer my poor services," he said very modestly, "my superior officers having forestalled me, but it will make me very happy to do anything for you. If Mademoiselle would like any stuffed birds or dried flowers and plants, it will give me pleasure to procure them for her, and perhaps Monsieur would like me to show him some wonderful things to paint. I draw a little myself, and know where the finest points of view are to be found."

We thanked him heartily, and accepted all that he offered us. As it was now time for our second breakfast, or, more properly speaking, lunch, we pressed him to partake of it with us, which he did. We should not have ventured upon inviting the Commandant, much less the Capitaine, so unceremoniously, but the Lieutenant's diffident manner had set us quite at our ease.

"I have a very humble apartment," he said, "but if Monsieur and Mademoiselle will visit me, I will do the honours of it with pride and pleasure. I can at least offer them a little music."

"Yes, I know that you play," Mary said, smiling; "our rooms join, and I heard you playing before I went to sleep last night." "Oh! Mademoiselle, I shall never forgive myself if I disturbed you

"No, indeed you did not, Monsieur. Much as I liked the music, I was too tired to listen to it, and went to sleep all the same.'

tion. There were gardens in embryo here and there, but no trees of any size, and not till you had got fairly away from Teschoun, could you perceive that its aspect was striking or imposing. Then, looking back from the craggy heights that surrounded it, the white line of the camp and the belt of verdure encircling it like a ribbon, struck the eye as a pleasant contrast to the warm, yellow atmosphere of earth and sky. The warmth and the yellowness were delicious. A fresh, sweet breeze blew across our faces from the Desert. We sat down and drew it in with long, devouring breaths.

A hundred yards behind us, his bright brown body sharply outlined against the pale, amber-colored sky, stood a little Bedouin smiling down upon us.

It was a perfect personification of Eastern life, and I made a sketch whilst the Lieutenant told Mary of his hard campaign southward, and his joy at catching the first glimpse of Teschoun from the distance. When we returned home we found that the Commandant's servant had left a bunch of roses for Mary, with his master's compliments, that the Capitaine's servant had been sent round with his master's horse for her to try, and that the Général had sent word by his aide-de-camp that he would do himself the pleasure of calling upon us that evening. Mary and I felt utterly overwhelmed by such goodness and condescension. A real starred, laced Général was about to call on us! We could hardly believe that we were our identical insignificant selves, who, but for you, oh! most sweet and honoured patroness. would have sunk under the burden of toil imposed upon us. But how all was changed! The poor unknown artist was treated as if he had been Sir Peter Paul Rubens; the humble little school teacher was fêted and flattered like the wife of a conquering Commander-inChief.

We had invited the young Lieutenant to drink tea with us at eight o'clock, and were enjoying a little music after a very sociable fashion, when a noisy excitement seemed to shake the house like the shock of an earthquake, and M. le Général was announced in Dominique's most impressive manner.

M. le Général was by no means an awful looking person, and indeed we had so largely expended our surprise already, that we had no more at command. He was an excessively stout, merry person, middle-aged, of a beautiful complexion, and a capacity to wink that would have vulgarized any one else but a general. He made himself very pleasant,

accepted a cup of tea, praised Mary's French, said that he intended to dine with us at the Commandant's to-morrow, and told us some laughable stories about the Arabs. I noticed that the Lieutenant seemed quite overawed by the presence of the Général, and sat flute in hand, like a statue. Mary tried to put him at his ease, but to no purpose. It did not mend matters when the Général began first to twit him about his musical accomplishments, and then to catechize him on military matters.

"You were in that affair of '59, in Kabylia, weren't you?" he asked in that quick, positive, military tone, to which we with difficulty get accustomed.

"It was a badly managed thing, I believe. The Kabyles got the better of you more than once, didn't they?"

"I believe so, mon Général."

"Bah!" cried the Général, turning to

me. "You see what these young officers know of their trade; I have no doubt that Monsieur le Lieutenant's musical education is much more advanced, and to serenade Mademoiselle suits him much better than to make war against the enemies of his country."

And, at the mention of the enemies of his country the Général indulged in a wink. When he was ready to go he sent the Lieutenant to order up his horse, much as if he had been a little boy of ten years old; and on taking leave added half a dozen commissions in the same peremptory tone. The poor Lieutenant listened very submissively, but no sooner had the Général dashed down the street, followed by his servant, equally well mounted, than he grew gay and easy again.

As soon as we were alone, Mary brought out her slender supply of gala dresses, and we discussed the important subject of her toilette of the next evening.

"It seems to me," I said, "that if you dress for the Lieutenant, you will displease the Capitaine; if you dress for the Capitaine, you will displease the Commandant; and if you dress for the Commandant, you will displease the Général."

Mary gathered up her fineries in alarm. "Don't you think I had better stay away from the dinner altogether, Tom?"

"By no means," I said, "settle the matter by dressing to please me."

Which she accordingly did, and the result was a semi-moresque, dainty and glowing bit of costume quite in keeping with the time and place.

PART II.

PRECISELY at seven o'clock we presented ourselves at the Commandant's, Mary looking very pretty in her transparent white dress, brilliant sack of Tunis silk, and necklets and bracelets of coral and palm-seeds. The little thing had such loving dark eyes, such a soft bloom on her cheeks and such a sweet mouth, that I could hardly blame the Général for wishing to have her sit beside him at dinner. The Commandant being a little shy, would have given up all his privileges as host, but the Général insisted upon the Commandant leading her in, and she sat between the two. It was very mortifying for the Capitaine and the Lieutenant; the former made an effort to be complimentary and entertaining across the table, but the latter looked quite crest-fallen, and hardly raised his eyes from his plate. When we retired to the drawing-room matters went a little better. The tame gazelle was brought in for Mademoiselle Marie to see, and whilst the Général and the Commandant had a long discussion on military affairs, the rest of us sported with the pretty creature and made pleasant plans for the morrow. Then an amusing game of cards was set on foot, over which we were growing very merry, when up came the Général and the Commandant.

"Eh, bien!" said the Général, slyly nudging the Capitaine. "We have not been so engrossed but we heard one or two pleasant things talked of. Upon my word, Capitaine, I am half disposed not to go to Mascara till after your pic nic to the waterfalls."

"You will do my poor little fête great honour, mon Général," answered the Capitaine, adding naïvely, "but I think that the wild geese flying northwards mean rain."

"Not a bit of it. We shall have no rain till a fortnight after Christmas. Mademoiselle Marie, I shall do myself the honour of offering you one of my horses to ride "

"Mademoiselle has already condescended to accept mine," the Capitaine put in with stiffness.

"Mademoiselle Marie, this gentleman has no horse fit to carry a lady. The brute he offers you has no more mouth than an elephant. Keep on the safe side and ride mine, which is a lamb, I assure you, Mademoiselle a lamb."

The Général spoke in jest, but the Capitaine was very near losing his temper. Mary being thus appealed to, thought to extricate herself from the difficulty by declaring herself half afraid of riding either horse,

But

being an inexperienced horsewoman. both the gentlemen had mules, and both the gentleman's mules were the best. Poor Mary coloured and looked at me in despair.

"I think," I said, "that the safest plan will be for my sister to try the horses and see which suits her the best."

Then the different routes to the waterfalls were discussed, and the different Douars or Arab villages where it would be best to have a Diffa or feast provided, Mary's judgment being asked in every instance. All this time the Lieutenant had turned over the leaves of a newspaper very meekly, and the Commandant had caressed his tame gazelle. As soon as she could politely free herself, Mary went up to him.

"How pretty and playful and fond it is!" she said, stooping down to stroke the little creature. The grave face of the Commandant brightened.

"Yes, it would be very triste here without the little thing."

"Do you never go to France, Monsieur ? "

"I shall perhaps go in two years' time, but you see Mademoiselle, that is a long time to look forward to, and if my mother should not be living, I might as well stay here."

"Do you like fighting the Arabs in the Desert, then, Monsieur ?"

แ

Mademoiselle, when one takes up the profession of arms, fighting and exile are choses entendues; I often sigh for a settled domestic life, but I might have been worse off. I might have gone to Mexico, for instance."

The Commandant's manner was so simple, so manly and so tinged with sadness, that I think any woman would have sympathized with him as much as my little sister Mary did. She, poor child, having lived all her life in a school-room, was quite ready to make a hero of any man who smiled kindly upon her; and here were four heroes, in handsome uniforms, all smiling upon her at once! There was the sweet sense of youth drawing her to the Lieutenant, but I think the Commandant stood next in her favour, and she could not for a moment forget the courteous kindness of the other two.

"It must be all a dream, Tom," she said, as she gave me her good-night kiss; "but oh! if it is a dream, don't let me wake yet."

We dreamed some wonderful things in the next few days. Dominique made us get up one morning very early, and drove us in his little wooden gig to an Arab encampment miles away in the Desert. It was dawn when we started, and large, pale

stars were shining in a violet sky: then, like a gorgeous butterfly emerging from a dusky chrysalis, came the Eastern day, and we felt as if living on a world warmed by a hundred suns. The warm, intoxicating light took possession of our senses, and so sweet, so rarefied, so indescribably delicious was the air, that it seemed to give wings to our dull bodies. Every now and then we were overtaken by clouds of locusts, their little wings glistening like diamonds against the soft sky, or flocks of starlings darkened the air, or a serried line of wild geese passed majestically overhead. Then we came to the tents, and at our approach a dozen dogs rushed out to snap and snarl, and a hundred little naked children scampered and scuttled across the way. A stately Bedouin made us welcome, and whilst Dominique transacted business with him, his women gathered round us. chattering and grinning like children. Then we were feasted upon couscous-sou and figs, and took leave after many salamaleks.

Another day we went out hunting gazelles, bivouacking along a river side, and feasting, Arab fashion, off a sheep roasted whole. Dominique had found a pretty little French girl, daughter of a travelling farrier, to act as Mary's handmaid; and she now felt less isolated among so many men, and less shy too. The poor child stood a fair chance of being spoiled, what with suddenly finding herself transformed from a schoolroom Cinderella to a fairy-tale princess, and having four lovers, all heroes, at once. For it was impossible to deny that the Général, the Commandant, the Capitaine, and the Lieutenant, all behaved like lovers, presenting her with jackal skins, ostriches' plumes and eggs, rare birds, and other treasures of the Sahara. The Général went so far as to give her a little negro boy about ten years old, though this gift we had accepted only temporarily, not quite knowing what to do with him when we left Teschoun.

Christmas-day came at last. Mary had artfully evaded the delicate point about horses, by declaring herself afraid of every one's beast but Dominique's; accordingly, mounted on Dominique's ugly hack, she led the way with the Général, her long, bright hair flowing in curls over her shoulders, her cheeks glowing with excitement. The pleasure and picturesqueness of the last few days for Mary had an artistic perception of beauty had brought out a new side to her character; and she quite surprised me from time to time with her saucy humour and quick repartee.

We made a brilliant cavalcade, what with the uniform of the officers, and the richly embroidered saddles and bright-red burnouses of our attendant spahis. After riding for some miles across a monotonous tract of stony desert, we came to a majestic sierra of crag, down which fell a dozen waterfalls, narrow and bright as swordblades. A thin little stream threaded the ravine, and on its banks grew clumps of the tamarisk, the oleander, and the thuya, making an oasis grateful to the eyes. Here we sat down and ate our Christmas breakfast, with stray thoughts of village bells chiming at home in England, and school children lustily singing their Christmas hymns.

Our host, the Capitaine, had provided a sumptuous feast of desert fare, roast quails and plovers, cous-cous-sou, figs, dates, and bananas, with the addition of champagne; and we were very merry.

"Mademoiselle," said the Capitaine, "think what our next Christmas will be if you are not here. Persuade Monsieur, your brother, to purchase some land between Mascara and Teschoun, so that we shall not lose you altogether."

The Général nudged the Commandant. "You see what our friend the Capitaine is dreaming of! Mon Capitaine, your escadron is sure to be sent into the interior this spring; put all romances out of your head, my dear fellow, and do not entice Monsieur into the committal of follies."

"I am not the only one to entertain romances," said the Capitaine coolly. "You, mon Général, did us all the honour to spend Christmas at Teschoun. We can but attribute such a condescension to the gracious influence of Mademoiselle."

"Look well after the Commandant when I am gone, gentlemen," continued the Géné ral, looking round with a smile. "Matters are gone so far already that he loses temper if a fellow-officer but jests with him. What a terrible slur it would be upon the glorious annals of French-African conquest, if such a brave officer should show himself fonder of stuffing birds for an English demoiselle than running swords through ungrateful Arabs!" and the Général looked round with a very comical expression of mock horror.

"Mademoiselle has indiscriminately accepted our tokens of homage," the Commandant said maliciously.

"But it yet remains to be seen whose of fering has been most acceptable to her," went on the Général, adding au grand se

This sort of banter lasted so long that poor Mary's cheeks burned with mixed vanity and mortification, and she made an excuse to leave us.

"And what does our Lieutenant advise Monsieur to do?" asked the Général, "to settle here or to follow his escadron to the Desert?" whereupon the poor Lieutenant coloured, and said nothing.

What an experience it was, that Christmas-day in the Desert! The noonday sun seemed to dissolve in the warm atmosphere; and instead of a single orb, shining overhead, large and golden, we had melted suns innumerable about us, and almost lost the sense of corporeity in their charmed medium.

When the short bright day waned, and the large stars were coming out one by one, we found ourselves near home; and when the heavens had turned to bluish black, and the stars to splendid silvery moons, we passed under the gate of Teschoun, and saw our shadows, darker and deeper than real things, fall across the white walls of mosque and fortress. For shadow and substance lose their identity in the Desert, and one is always on the point of mistaking the one for the other if any thing, shadow is the more real of the two.

So absorbed was I in the suggestions of this mysterious beauty, that I had forgotten all about my sister's lovers, till we were fairly in our little sitting room. Then Mary began to sigh and to blush, and to hint that she thought we had better leave Teschoun very soon.

"You see, Tom dear," she said with tears in her eyes, "the Général says he adores me, and the Commandant says he never loved any one in the world till he saw me, and the Capitaine says that if I go away he will blow his brains out, and what am I to do?

"And the Lieutenant ? "

say

what did he

"He says nothing," said Mary, looking down, "and" - here came a sob "and I like him best of all!"

66 But, if he does not declare the same liking for you, we must leave him out of the question, and close between the other three, I suppose."

"He does not speak, because he is too modest: I'm sure he likes me,” Mary added | still ready to cry.

"His state of feeling does not help us

"

much, unless expressed," I replied; mean

The little thing plucked at the folds of her riding skirt in the greatest perplexity. "I like the Général, and I like the Commandant, and I ought not to dislike the Capitaine; but I cannot marry one without offending the others, and, if I were to marry out here in the Desert, Tom, would you stay too?"

We had been living in such utter fairyland lately, that I felt as if it were quite possible for me to marry some brownskinned, soft-eyed Rebecca, and turn Mahometan. But, in any case, could I desire for my sister a happier fate than to marry one of these brave gentlemen, and live in the sunny South all the rest of her days? She would be rescued from a life of toil and friendliness, and have another protector besides her Bohemian of a brother.

'My dear child," I said, "it would be impossible for me to say that our lives should be spent together; but you may be quite sure that nothing would utterly divide them. The chief point is of all your lovers, whom do you love?"

To this question, I could elicit no positive reply. Mary, in fact, was half in love with the Général and the Commandant, and wholly in love with the Lieutenant, and was quite incapable of deciding her own fate.

"You must not laugh at me," she said simply, as we bade each other good-night, "it is so new to me to have lovers, and so delightful, that I wish I could go on forever being happy, and making them happy, without marrying either." Then she blushed, and ran off to bed.

The next morning we were taking our early coffee, when we heard a clatter of horses' feet, and, looking out, saw one of the Général's splendid brown-skinned redcloaked spahis, dashing into the town at a furious rate. He pulled up at Dominique's door, and, letting his little barb prance and rear at will, looked towards us, showing his white teeth, and waving a letter in one hand.

I left my breakfast, and ran down to him. We exchanged "salamaleks," and then he put the letter in my hand, adding in broken French, "Le Général cela - va faire la guerre-la-bas." Then he put spurs to his horse's flanks, and dashed away as fast as he had come.

envoyer

I broke the seal of the Général's letter, which ran as follows: