with a gentle and quiet dignity, repelled the advances of certain
aspirants for her hand, who were continually to be found in her train
whenever she appeared abroad. She had a smile for all and a fascinating
and bewitching manner which was equally bestowed among her would-be
admirers. But beyond this all was calm and cold. Her heart had
imperceptibly slipped from her, and was now in the care of another, nor
would she wish it were otherwise. The future was before her and she was
willing to wait.

Let it not be imagined that Arthur Carlton was a lukewarm lover, coldly
prudential, or thinking it would be time enough to marry when he should
have obtained his Captaincy, and careless as to what trying position
Edith might be placed in, surrounded, as he knew her to be, by those who
would willingly wed her at any moment. Far from it. He loved her too
well to ask her to share at present the inconveniences incident to a
camp life, as experienced by the wives of subalterns, not that he
doubted she would yield up without a single regret the gay society and
splendid establishment of Mrs. Barton, and contentedly share with him
his home, be it ever so humble. But the thought of her having to make
any such sacrifice was to him one that could not be entertained for a
moment. He believed he knew her sufficiently well to trust implicitly in
her constancy, and await the happy time when he could in all honour
formally propose for her hand.

About a twelvemonth prior to the outbreak of the great Sepoy mutiny, it
pleased the authorities to change the scene of Mr. Barton's labors from
Chowringee, that Belgravia of Calcutta, to Goolampore, a military
station of some importance in the northwest provinces, or more properly
speaking in the Goozeratte country. This act of the Government, although
particularly objectionable to Mrs. Barton, was exactly what her lord and