"No;—but wherefore?"
"Edward Shelly?"
"No," she replied, her bright eyes filling with wonder.
"Edward Shelly, captain of the English band named the Boulogners?"
"No—I tell you no; but why all these questions?"
"It is most inexplicable!" exclaimed Florence; and he hastily told her what he had overheard Shelly saying to Master Patten, and the astonishment and perplexity of poor Madeline was great. Then she switched the skirt of her riding-dress impatiently, and said laughing,—
"'Tis the first time I have heard of this unknown lover. I hope he is handsome and gallant,—I should like much to see him; but—but 'tis impossible all this, dearest Florence; you dreamed it, or you but jest with me."
"Nay, 'tis no dream or jest, sweet Madeline, as I am to fight a solemn duel anent it, on the Border-side, with the same Edward Shelly, unless——"
"What—what?" she asked, growing pale.
"We meet in battle before a month be past, and of that there is every probability."