card--"

"Do not look," I interrupted swiftly, "for I claim first choice since
this afternoon."

"You do?" and her eyes laughed into mine provokingly. "And I had
forgotten it all; did I, indeed promise you?"

"Only with your eyes."

"Oh, my eyes! always my eyes! Well, for once, at least, I will redeem
even that visionary pledge," and her glance swept the room hastily. "But
I advise that you accept my surrender quickly, sir--I am not sure but
this was Captain Grant's dance, and he is coming now."




CHAPTER V

THE BEGINNING OF TROUBLE


Her hand was in mine, my arm already around her waist, when the officer
bowed before us. He had been but a dim figure in the afternoon, but now I
saw him for a tall, slender man, somewhat swarthy of face, with black
hair and moustache, and a keen eye, attired in the green and white of the
Queen's Rangers. He smiled, but with a sarcastic curl to the upper lip
not altogether pleasant.