"It is only a queer old ring that I found on the wreck," he hastened to explain. "It fell out from behind the wainscoting in the cabin, and your daughter was looking at it, and in the subsequent confusion carried it away. She wished to restore it to me now, but I have been asking her to do me the honour of keeping it, as——"
"Certainly, certainly," interrupted the elder gentleman, greatly relieved; "and so she shall, so she shall."
"It just fits me, papa," she said, slipping it on her third finger, and holding it up for approval.
The two men gazed at it in silence, and made no verbal remark, but the same thought occurred to both—assuredly that strange old ring had never graced a prettier hand!
When Mr. Lisle had taken his departure, Colonel Denis said to his daughter, as he picked up the Pioneer,—
"I like that fellow—uncommonly; there is no nonsense about him."
"So you should, papa, if you put any value on me."
"That is a thing apart, my dear. But I had always a fancy for Lisle, for he reminds me of a very old friend of mine, who was killed in the Mutiny. His name was not Lisle, but Redmond; but, all the same, the likeness is something extraordinary, especially about the eyes—and Lisle has his very laugh!"
"Which you do not often hear," remarked his daughter. "I'm sure Mr. Lisle is a gentleman by birth,—no matter what Mrs. Creery says."
"What does she say?"