“His manners are good, Papa.  Were they ever otherwise?”

“I mean that he is becoming more conciliatory, and more considerate of other people.  He has scarcely differed from me to-day, and certainly did not undertake to set me right, or contradict me even once, a habit he is much addicted to, and very unbecoming in so young a man!  It is certainly, too, very kind of him to give up his comfortable quarters to the Shortridges, in their distress, particularly as I know he despises the man.”

Now do not blunder on to the hasty conclusion, good reader, that L’Isle, having, at first sight, plunged over head and ears in love with Lady Mabel, had resolved to win and wear her with the least possible loss of time; that he was now investing the fortress, about to besiege it in form, and would hold himself in readiness to carry it by storm on the first opportunity.  He acknowledged to himself no such intention; and he doubtless knew his own mind best.  Without exactly holding the opinion of Sir John, as set forth by his follower, Bardolph, that a soldier is better accommodated than with a wife—­he had often strenuously maintained, in opposition to some love-stricken comrade, that, in the midst of a bloody war, a soldier can give no worse proof of devotion to the lady of his choice, than urging her to become a promising candidate for early widowhood.  He preached exceedingly well on this text, and it is but fair to believe that he would practice what he preached.  No! in the interest he took in Lady Mabel’s situation, he was actuated by no selfish or personal motives.  He acquitted himself of that.  Had he come across Lady Mabel’s old Lisbon coach, beset by robbers, in her journey through the Alemtejo, he would have dashed in among them, sword in hand, like a true gentleman, and a good knight.  Now, when he saw her surrounded by evils and embarrassments of a less tangible kind, the same spirit of chivalry brought him promptly to her aid.

Lady Mabel lost no time in adding Mrs. Shortridge to the list of her female acquaintances in Elvas, which, unlike that of her male friends was so short that this new comer was the only one available as a companion.  This jewel of a companion, which elsewhere might have escaped her notice, was now seized upon as a diamond of the first water; and Mrs. Shortridge was happy and flattered to find herself the associate of a lady of rank, not to speak of her other merits.

It is not always similarity of character that makes people friends.  It quite as often makes them rivals.  To have what your companion wants, and to need what he can afford you, is a better foundation for those social partnerships, often dignified with the name of friendship.  The great talker wants a good listener; the sluggish or melancholic are glad of a companion who will undertake the active duty of providing conversation and amusement; he whose nature it is to lead, wants some one who will follow; and the doubting man welcomes as a strong ally, him who will decide for him.  As Dogberry says, “when two men ride on a horse, one must ride behind,” and the social, compliant and admiring temper of Mrs. Shortridge fitted in so well with the animated, impulsive, and vigorous spirit of Lady Mabel, that something very like friendship grew up between them.