"I don't believe you've got a young woman, Colonel Stubbs."
"Well; no; I haven't,—except in my imagination."
If so, he too must have his Angel of Light! "Do you ever dream about her?"
"Oh dear, yes. I dream that she does scold so awfully when I have her to myself. In my dreams, you know, I'm married to her, and she always wants me to eat hashed mutton. Now, if there is one thing that makes me more sick than another it is hashed mutton. Of course I shall marry her in some of my waking moments, and then I shall have to eat hashed mutton for ever."
Then Captain Batsby put in another word. "I should so like to be allowed to give you a lead to-morrow."
"Oh, thank you,—but I'd rather not have it," said Ayala, who was altogether in the dark, thinking that "a lead" might be some present which she would not wish to accept from Captain Batsby.
"I mean that I should like to show you a line if we get a run."
"What is a line?" asked Ayala.
"A line? Why a line is just a lead;—keep your eye on me and I'll take the fences where you can follow without coming to grief."
"Oh," said Ayala, "that's a lead is it? Colonel Stubbs is going to give my friend and me a lead, as long as we stay here."