hand was laid on my shoulder, and a well-known
voice said, 'Don't lose your time in thinking,
Charlie, but go back to the ball-room. We
sha'n't have any more dancing till we enter
Caracas.' It was Power, and I could not help
saying, 'Perhaps it would have been better if
I thought a little more, especially before acting.'
Something in my manner struck Power, who
knew my character thoroughly. He had seen
me dancing with Luisa, and my short speech
having excited his suspicions, he said at once,
'Why, Charlie, you have not been making yourself
a fool with one of those girls?' 'Indeed,
but I have, though,' I replied. 'I have
proposed to Luisa, and she has accepted me.'
'Then I forbid the banns,' said Power. 'You
shall not make yourself such a blockhead. Aye!
there they are,' he added, looking round and
seeing Luisa with her mother. 'I'll bet the old
woman is rejoicing at having hooked you.' In
another mood I should have quarrelled with
Power for this speech: but Luisa's parting
remark had created a disagreeable feeling in my
mind, which was heightened by this sneer.
Seeing his advantage, Power set himself to
improve the opportunity at once. 'Be a reasonable
fellow, Charlie,' he said. 'We march the
day after tomorrow. You surely don't mean to
apply for leave of absence just when we are
going to meet the enemy! Then as for engaging
yourself, who the deuce can tell how long the
campaign is going to last, or how it will end? Take
my advice, and break it off at once.' 'It's all
very well to say break it off,' I replied, 'but
how am I to do it? Can I go and tell Luisa,
ten minutes after proposing to her, that I meant
nothing?' Power thought a moment with
rather a serious face, and then resuming his
usual bright look, exclaimed, 'I have it, Charley.
You sha'n't have the pain of speaking to Luisa,
and, moreover, I won't trust your courage in
that quarter. Take another bottle of champagne,
and then go and pop the question to her sister.
Depend on't, after that you'll hear no more of
the matter.' With these words Power filled me
a tumbler of champagne. I drank it, and made
up my mind to follow his advice.

"Now it so happened that Helena was dressed
that night rather peculiarly. She wore a pink
silk bodice and a white muslin skirt with very
deep flounces of Venezuelan lace, and I
remembered saying to her that it was a good
costume for a ball, as a partner in search of her
could tell her colours a long way off. 'I shall
soon find her,' said I to myself, 'but how shall I
account for having neglected her for so many
dances, and then coming all at once and
proposing to her? Let me see; perhaps I had better
slip a note in her hand, and then vanish. I have
promised Power to do what he said, but I
don't half like the thing, and least said, soonest
mended.' Acting on this idea, I walked off
into one of the retiring-rooms, got pencil and
paper, and wrote, 'Dearest, I have tried in vain
to conceal my feelings; but now that I am on
the eve of leaving you, I can no longer restrain
them. Though I have appeared to be engrossed
in another quarter, this has only been a mask
to allow me to follow you with my eyes, and
assure myself that your love is not given to
another. I see now, or think I see, that you are
free; suffer me then to offer you my heart, which
indeed has long been yours.' Having signed
this effusion, I returned to the refreshment-
room, and, fortifying myself with several
additional bumpers, I proceeded in search of
Helena. But the great quantity of wine I had
taken, the heat and the excitement I felt, had
their effect on my brain. The room seemed to turn
round, as well as the dancers; I came, somehow
or other, into collision with several people, and
made excuses in a thick voice, which sounded
oddly even to myself. I was conscious of my
condition, and felt I must get out into the air,
or make an unpleasant exhibition of myself.
Just at that moment I came on the pink
bodice. The wearer was not dancing, but
leaning against an open window with one white
arm, while the other hung beside her. I slipped
my note into the open hand, and the fingers, as
if experienced in the reception of such
missives, tightened on it. I turned and made off
through the crowd; but as I did so, she turned
too. I half caught her look, and the features
seemed to me strangely unlike those of Helena.

"In what manner I returned to the house of
Señor Rivas I know not. The open air, instead
of sobering me, seemed to make me worse; but
the first thing I distinctly recognized was a
horribly cold sensation in my left hand. On drawing
it towards me, a squelch of falling water followed,
and I found I had been lying with my hand in
the ewer, out of which I suppose I had been
drinking. Getting up with a splitting headache,
I dressed slowly, and had scarce refreshed
myself with a cup of coffee, when somebody
knocked at the door. I called out 'Entrate,'
and, to my surprise, in stepped an Irish officer
I knew by sight only, who, without a word of
preface, handed me a challenge from O'Halloran.

"After reading the epistle twice, and looking
a third time at the address, to make sure I was
the party intended, I turned to Kelly—that was
the name of the officer—and said: 'Will you
have the goodness to explain what this means?
I think there must be some mistake.'

"'Mistake, sir,' said Kelly; 'you're mighty
fond, sir, of that word "mistake." Ye said it
was a mistake last night; but, faith, sir, it's
a mistake that there's only one way of clearing
up.' Then putting his hand into his pocket
and producing another note, he handed it to me
with great ceremony, saying, 'Do you call that
a mistake, sir?'

"What was my surprise, on opening the note,
to find it was the same I had written to Helena.
I held it for several minutes without saying a
word, while I endeavoured to recall the
incidents of the preceding night. By degrees I
came to the conclusion that I must somehow
have mistaken O'Halloran's wife for Helena,
and this idea became certainty when Kelly, who
was an old hand at duelling, said impatiently:
'Pshaw, sir! a man of honour never makes