where they stood, grew denser farther up, till it intermingled with
the larger volumes that rolled up from the crater.

"Now, as I stood there, I suddenly heard a wild proposal from the
child-angel.

"'Oh, Ethel,' she said, 'I've a great mind to go up--'"

Here Hawbury interrupted his friend:

"What's that? Was that her friend's name?" he asked, with some
animation. "Ethel?--odd, too. Ethel? H'm. Ethel? Brunette, was she?"

"Yes."

"Odd, too; infernally odd. But, pooh! what rot! Just as though there
weren't a thousand Ethels!"

"What's that you're saying about Ethel?" asked Dacres.

"Oh, nothing, old man. Excuse my interrupting you. Go ahead. How did
it end?"

"Well, the child-angel said, 'Ethel, I've a great mind to go up.'

"This proposal Ethel scouted in horror and consternation.

"'You must not--you shall not!' she cried.

"'Oh, it's nothing, it's nothing,' said the child-angel. 'I'm dying to