What are words to tell of the wild excitement
with which this extraordinary scene
was watched when the count's single score
had reached and passed a hundred. The
applause and clapping of hands, with which
his earlier successes had been greeted were
no longer heard. No sound broke the stillness,
save the crash of the ball against the
stranger's bat. Not a man was in the tent;
not one seated on the grass, or propped upon
a bat. All were standing in attitudes of
eager self-forgetfulness, and the cigars in the
lips of the non-players went out incontinently.
As for the young lady with the flashing
eyes, that prettiest of girls drove into places
of such danger in her admiration of this
triumphant play, that the game, as we have
seen, was arrested that she might be
cautioned, and even the wilful pony shook his
mane at her in remonstrance, as she urged
him on.

A long, low murmur, succeeded by a dead
silence, marked the moment when, at the
conclusion of the hundred and fifty-first run
of the stranger's score the game might be
considered over.

That silence was broken by the calm tones
of the count's voice, as, turning to the
umpire, he quietly observed, "I think, sir,
that since the match was limited to one day's
play, and it is now drawing towards evening,
the game may be considered over."

A deafening cheer from both sides followed
this remark, and in another moment the
stranger was surrounded by cricketers eagerly
inquiring what matches he had previously
been engaged in—where he had chiefly
practised—what was the secret of his success, and
a hundred other questions.

"You will allow me to introduce you to
my sister," said the young man, who was his
first acquaintance. "She is anxious to
thank you for saving the credit of Smallport."

"In one moment," was the stranger's
answer, as, entering the tent, he called to his
black attendant, and, quietly seating himself,
uttered these remarkable words: "Sprinkle
me," said the Smallport Monte- Cristo,
"sprinkle me with Eau de Cologne. I was
smoking this morning."

He was obeyed, and instantly putting his
arm in that of his young acquaintance, they
advanced together to the pony-chaise. The
young lady who occupied it seemed, for so
high-spirited a girl, much embarrassed in the
presence of the stranger. Her glance quailed
before his, and her gauntleted hands played
nervously with the white leather of the reins
as she congratulated him on his triumph,
and invited him to make one at the dinner
which was to take place that evening at her
father's house, and at which most of the
cricketers were to be present. She concluded
by assuring him that she was quite certain
it would give her papa great pleasure to
make the count's acquaintance.

"Not more pleasure than it would give to
me," replied the stranger, "but, most unfortunately
I am compelled to return at once to
Marseilles and thence to proceed to Rome, where
I have an appointment with the Pope. My
yacht is even now waiting for me, and I must
be on board of her without delay. In about
a week, however, I propose to be again at
Smallport to make a somewhat longer stay,
when I shall, I trust, have the honour of
renewing this acquaintance. Meantime, permit
me to express my regret that I am thus hastily
called away, and to you, sir" (turning to the
brother), "my thanks for an introduction,
which every one who sees this young lady
must desire."

He just touched her gauntlet with his
ungloved hand, and, bowing to the assembled
cricketers as he got into the saddle, was out
of sight in a moment.

It happens that the day of the count's
return to Smallport is that of the regatta,
which is got up annually at the little town,
and his beautiful yacht, La Mutine, is no
sooner seen laying-to just outside the little
bay, than a deputation puts off to beg his
support of the regatta by a trifling subscription.
Without glancing at the sums already
subscribed by the local potentates, the most
liberal of whom has put down five pounds,
the count takes a pen and carelessly writes
A Stranger, £100.

Everything he does is on this scale. At
mid-day he invites the young lady with the
flashing eyes, and all her family, on board
his yacht; and there is an apartment more
like a lady's boudoir than the cabin of a
vessel. A luncheon is put before them,
consisting of delicacies which would be considered
extraordinary even on shore, and displaying
the most perfect refinement in their cookery,
while with the fruits which follow is served an
abundant supply of cream, drawn from a
purely bred Alderney, with a face as beautiful
as a deer's, which lives in a small Swiss
châlet; built upon the deck. The young lady
having expressed a desire to kiss this favoured
beast, it is found the next morning in her
father's stable with a note, begging the
Colonel to allow his daughter to accept this
trifling present. The old officer's remonstrances
at depriving the count of so valuable an
animal, are met by the stranger with the
calm assurance, that he has a hundred more
on one of his farms at Alderney, and that he
can easily supply the loss the next time he is
passing that island in his yacht. But we are
getting on too fast. Before the party leaves
the vessel the stranger intimates, that he has
a favour to ask, and one which, great as it is,
he yet trusts may not be denied him. He is
dissatisfied, he says, with the present figurehead
of his yacht," and the request he is about
to make, is that the young lady who has done
him the honour of coming on board his vessel
that day, would consent to sit for a new one
to his friend M——-. And he mentions