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acknowledgment. `We met for the first time this evening, John; though in truth I ha ve seen Captain Poldark before in somewhat different c ase.
    'When was that?' asked Ross.
    `Oh, you could not be expected to notice me. It was at your trial at Bodmin when you were charged, you will remember, with plundering two ships. I was one of the audience!
    'I remember well enough,' said Ross. `But audience suggests entertainment, and I can't suppose the entertainment was very goo d!
    'I have known worse. You see, in a play one knows virtue is going to be triumphant; but in real life one trembles on the brink of iniquity and fears for the outcome.'
    `I think you must have been at the wrong trial, Miss Penvenen. There was precious little virtue in my case - and no triumph in my acquittal - unless it was a triumph for the wrongheadedness of the jury. Your sympathy should have been with the judge.'
    Caroline's eyes flashed, `Oh, it was, I assure you. I noticed how sad he looked when he could not punish you at all.'
    During the first part of the dinner Ross talked to Elizabeth. Her pleasure was no less than his and was plain to Demelza who, near the foot of the table, found herself between Sir Hugh Bodrugan, who always had such a marked and possessive partiality for her company, and Captain McNeil of the Scots Greys: McNeil was that officer who had been in the district once before, some years ago, stationed here with a company of dragoons to watch over the unrest in the mining districts and to put, down the smuggling.
    Whatever anyone else might feel about the disposition of the table, Malcolm McNeil had no complaints. He only wished Sir Hugh wouldn't be so monopolistic. Again and again he tried to gain Mrs. Poldark's attention, and again and again the hairy baronet grabbed it back. His first real opportunity came when Sir Hugh -had to carve another piece off the joint for Mrs. Frensham, Sir John's sister, and McNeil at once asked Demelza if he might presently; do the same for her.
    'Thank you, no,' said Demelza. "Tis quite surprising seeing you here, Captain McNeil. I thought you was gone back to Scotland and the clans.'
    ' Oh, I have been back in the meantime,' he assured her, screwing in his great moustache at her admiringly. 'And overseas. And in London and Windsor. But I grew, an affection for this piece of country - and some of the people - and when the occasion came to revisit it and them `With your dragoons?'
    "No dragoons this time.'
    'Not one?'
    `Only myself, Mrs. Poldark. I'm sorry to disappoint ye. I was ill with a fever, and afterwards, meeting Sir John in London, was invited to take my sick leave here'
    Demelza glanced at him amiably. `You don't look a sick, man, Captain McNeil;'
    `Nor am I now, ma'am. Let me fill your glass. Is it canary ye have been drinking?'
    `I know only three flavours, and it is none of those three!
    'Then canary; it must be. And I have found a great amount of plaisure as well as health in admiring your beautiful coast ’
    `Not looking for smugglers?'
    'No, no, Mrs. Poldark; not this time. Why, are there some still? I thought my last visit had quite put them down.'
    `And so it did. We was all, downcast after you had gone.'
    Th e Scotsman glanced at her with a twinkle 'That is a remark capable of two interpretations., Demelza looked up the table and saw Ross smiling at Elizabeth 'I didn't think, Captain McNeil, that you could have supposed me a smuggler.'
    McNeil's chuckle, restrained as it was by his standards, was enough to silence the rest of the table for a second or two.
    Mrs. Frensham said, smiling:' 'If that pleasantry will bear repetition, I think you should not keep it to yourselves.'
    Demelza said: `Oh, it was not a jest on my side, ma'am. Captain McNeil was assuring me that he had not come down this time to catch smugglers, and I told him I did not know what else he could expect to catch in these parts,'
    Sir Hugh Bodrugan rumbled: 'Damme, I differ as to the jest'
    Mrs. Frensham said : `Captain