want you to promise me now, upon your honor, that you will not tell him how unmercifully you quizzed me awhile ago. He would never have done chaffing me if he knew, and he would tell the whole regiment once we landed in England."
"Would they tease you much?" inquired Leonora, highly interested.
"Unbearably," he replied.
"They shall not know, then," she answered, promptly. "I will not tell your friend about it."
"Nor any one?" he entreated.
"Certainly not," she answered, soothingly, and involuntarily he caught her hand and pressed it a moment in his own, not displeased to see that she blushed as she drew it hastily away.
He went away, and when he looked at his watch outside the door he was honestly surprised.
"Two hours! I really do not know how the time went," he said to himself.
When he went back to his hotel he found De Vere in a state of surprise, too.
"You have been gone almost three hours," he said. "Did you find the baby?"
"Yes, I found it," he replied, carelessly.
"Was it well? Shall we have the pleasure of its company to-morrow?" pursued the lieutenant.
"Yes, it was well, but it is a spoiled child. I am afraid we shall find it a source of trouble to us," replied Captain Lancaster, smiling to himself at the surprise and delight in store for De Vere to-morrow, when he should find that it was a beautiful young girl instead of a cross baby who was to be their compagnon du voyage to England.
CHAPTER IX
Lancaster electrified his friend next morning by informing him that he must get their traps aboard the steamer himself, as he would not have time to attend to his own affairs, having some commissions to execute for Miss West.
"The nursing-bottles and the cans of condensed milk, you know," he said, with a mischievous laugh, and De Vere stared.
"I should think the nurse would attend to that," he said.
"Nurses are forgetful, and I wish everything to be all right, you know," replied his friend; "so I shall see to everything myself."
"Well, you will have plenty of time to do so. We do not sail until four o'clock."
"Well, I shall have plenty to do in the meantime, so you need not wait for me, Harry. You may just go aboard at any time you like. I shall take a carriage and call for the baby on my way down."
"You are getting very kind all at once," De Vere said, carelessly.
"Yes, I mean to be. Having undertaken it, I mean to see the poor little thing safely through."
"Well, I wish you success," De Vere replied, as he lighted a fresh cigar and turned away.
The tickets and state-rooms had already been secured, and Lancaster hurried down-town, intent on securing all the comforts possible for his fair charge, who had suddenly grown very interesting in his eyes. He bought a steamer-chair, some warm rugs, and a gayly colored Oriental wrap that was both pretty and comfortable. Then he provided himself with some nice novels and poems and books of travel. When he had provided everything he could think of that was conducive to a lady's comfort, he repaired to a florist's and selected an elegant and costly bouquet.
"I have noticed that ladies always like a bunch of flowers when they are traveling," he said to himself. "But what will De Vere say to such reckless extravagance on my part?"
He smiled to himself, thinking how the young lieutenant would chaff.
"Anyway, I shall have got the start of him," he thought. "He will be on the qui vive for a flirtation with Leonora West."
Then he looked at his watch and found that he had consumed so much time in making his purchases that he only had time to take a carriage and call for his charge. Having sent all his purchases to the steamer, and being encumbered with nothing but the flowers, he made all haste to execute his last and pleasantest task—accompanying Miss West to the steamer on which they were to embark.
"Drive fast," he said to the man on the box; and when they paused before the genteel boarding-house where he had made Miss West's acquaintance the day before, he jumped out with alacrity and ran up the steps.
The door was opened by the simpering maid of the day before who had giggled at his ridiculous mistake. He could not help coloring at the remembrance as he met her recognizing smiles, a little tinctured with surprise.
He assumed an air of coldness and hauteur, thinking to freeze her into propriety.
"I have called for Miss West to take her to the steamer. Will you please see if she is ready?"
"Oh, Lor', sir!" tittered the maid.
"I have called for Miss West," he repeated, more sternly. "Can you inform me if she is ready?"
The maid bridled resentfully at his impatient air.
"Why, lawk a mercy, she was ready ages ago, mister!" she said, tartly.
"Then ask her to come out, if you please. We have barely half an hour to go on board," he said, glancing hurriedly at his watch.
"I can't ask her. She is not here," was the answer.
"Not here? then where—" he began, but the pert maid interrupted him:
"Lor', sir, Miss West went down to the steamer two hours ago."
An audible titter accompanied the information.
Lancaster bounded down the steps without a word, sprung into his carriage, and slammed the door with a vim.
"Drive down to the steamer just as fast as you can, coachman!" he hallooed, sharply.
CHAPTER X
De Vere stared in wonder when his friend scrambled up the plank alone with his beautiful bouquet. He was not a minute too soon, for in an instant the gang-plank was hauled in, and they were outward bound on the dark-blue sea.
"Halloo!" shouted the lieutenant, sauntering up; "where's the precious babe?"
His air of unfeigned surprise was most exasperating to Lancaster in his disappointed mood. He was about to exclaim, "Hang the babe!" but recollected himself just in time to glance around at the passengers on deck. No, she was not there, the pretty American maid who was so gracefully independent. "Gone to her state-room, probably," he thought, with profound chagrin, and leaning over the railing, pitched his fragrant exotics impulsively into the sea.
"So much for my foolish gallantry to Mrs. West's niece," he said to himself, hotly.
Raising his eyes then, he met De Vere's stare of wonder.
"Have you gone clean daft, my dear captain?" inquired he.
"I don't know why you should think so," said Lancaster, nettled.
"From your looks, man. You come flying up the gang-way, breathless, and when I ask you a question you stare around distractedly, and run to the railing to pitch over one of the sweetest bouquets I ever laid eyes on. Now, what am I to think of you, really?"
He laughed, and Lancaster, trampling his vexation under-foot, laughed too. He was vexed with himself that he had let Leonora West put him out so.
"I beg your pardon for my rudeness," he said. "I will explain. You see, I was so busy all day that I only had time at the last to jump into a carriage and call for Miss West. Then I was detained by an impertinent servant who, after ten minutes of stupid jargon, told me that my charge had gone down to the steamer two hours before. So then we had not a minute to spare, and of course I was flurried when I came aboard."
"But the bouquet?" suggested De Vere, curiously.
"Oh, I bought that for my charge," replied Lancaster, airily.
"Rank extravagance! And didn't you know more about the tastes of babies than that, my dear fellow? A rattle would have been a more appropriate and pleasing selection. You know what the poet says:
"'Pleased with a rattle,
Tickled with a straw.'"
"Yes,