"Heaven confound him!" I muttered between my teeth.
"And then he wished to have an interview with Captain Hammersley. However, he is too ill; but as the doctor hoped he might be down-stairs in a week, Mr. Considine kindly hinted that he should wait."
"Oh, then, do tell me how is the captain."
"Very much bruised, very much disfigured, they say," said she, half smiling; "but not so much hurt in body as in mind."
"As how, may I ask?" said I, with an appearance of innocence.
"I don't exactly understand it; but it would appear that there was something like rivalry among you gentlemen _chasseurs_ on that luckless morning, and that while you paid the penalty of a broken head, he was destined to lose his horse and break his arm."
"I certainly am sorry,--most sincerely sorry for any share I might have had in the catastrophe; and my greatest regret, I confess, arises from the fact that I should cause _you_ unhappiness."
"Mr. O'Malley, you are too young now to make me suspect you have an intention to offend; but I caution you, never repeat this."
I saw that I had transgressed, but how, I most honestly confess, I could not guess; for though I certainly was the senior of my fair companion in years, I was most lamentably her junior in tact and discretion.
The gray dusk of evening had long fallen as we continued to chat together beside the blazing wood embers,--she evidently amusing herself with the original notions of an untutored, unlettered boy, and I drinking deep those draughts of love that nerved my heart through many a breach and battlefield.
Our colloquy was at length interrupted by the entrance of Sir George, who shook me most cordially by the hand, and made the kindest inquiries about my health.
"They tell me you are to be a lawyer. Mr. O'Malley," said he; "and if so, I must advise you to take better care of your headpiece."
"A lawyer, Papa; oh dear me! I should never have thought of his being anything so stupid."
"Why, silly girl, what would you have a man be?"
"A dragoon, to be sure, Papa," said the fond girl, as she pressed her arm around his manly figure, and looked up in his face with an expression of mingled pride and affection.
When I retired to my room to dress for dinner, I found my servant waiting with a note from my uncle, to which, he informed me, the messenger expected an answer.