Mediterranean. And that girl at Malta! I wonder what has become of her?
What a beauty she was! I dare say she wasn't so fine a girl as the
Armenian you unearthed on the Bosphorus, but she had something about her
a fellow can't forget. That was a lovely creature coming down the hills
over Granada on her mule. Ay, we've seen handsome women, Nevil
Beauchamp. But you always were lucky, invariably, and I should bet on
you for the Election.'

'Canvass for me, Jack,' said Beauchamp, smiling at his friend's
unconscious double-skeining of subjects. 'If I turn out as good a
politician as you are a seaman, I shall do. Pounce on Hardist's vote
without losing a day. I would go to him, but I've missed the Halketts
twice. They 're on the Otley river, at a place called Mount Laurels,
and I particularly want to see the colonel. Can you give me a boat
there, and come?'

'Certainly,' said Wilmore. 'I've danced there with the lady, the
handsomest girl, English style, of her time. And come, come, our English
style's the best. It wears best, it looks best. Foreign women . . .
they're capital to flirt with. But a girl like Cecilia Halkett--one
can't call her a girl, and it won't do to say Goddess, and queen and
charmer are out of the question, though she's both, and angel into the
bargain; but, by George! what a woman to call wife, you say; and a man
attached to a woman like that never can let himself look small. No such
luck for me; only I swear if I stood between a good and a bad action, the
thought of that girl would keep me straight, and I've only danced with
her once!'

Not long after sketching this rough presentation of the lady, with a
masculine hand, Wilmore was able to point to her in person on the deck of