ship of the city in place of Estela, who preferred to relinquish masculine duties with masculine attire, and otherwise making the reunited pair the recipients of favors which testified, in a practical manner, his esteem for them.
This is but a feeble and incomplete recital of a very pretty story, and is only entitled to a place in this narrative of my own adventures, because it was so much in my thoughts at the particular period of which I am now writing, and because it inspired me to imitate Estela's example so far as to seek to obtain a confession of love from Captain De Canlp, before I should reveal myself to him. I was filled with an eager desire to hear what he would say of me to his friend, the supposed Lieutenant Buford, and having arranged in my mind what I should say to him when we met, I waited, with ill-disguised impatience, for the time to come when I could put my plan in execution, trying to imagine, all the while, what would be the effect upon him when the whole truth was made known.
It was a weary while waiting, though, for the hour of meeting to come, and, had my physicians permitted it, I would have left my sick-bed to go to Captain De Caulp long before I was really able to be on my feet. Dr. Hammond, however, knew better what was good for me than I knew myself, and he constrained me to remain under his care until he should be able to pronounce me able to care for myself once more; and, as there was no use in resisting his orders, I obeyed them perforce, with what patience I could command.
