re certain to meet
again. I shall go to a military school. Mind you enter a cavalry regiment
when you're man enough. Look in the Army List, you'll find me there. My
aunt shall make a journey and call on you while you're at Rippenger's, so
you shan't be quite lonely.'

To my grief, I discovered that Heriot had resolved he would not return to
school.

'You'll get thrashed,' he said; 'I can't help it: I hope you've grown
tough by this time. I can't stay here. I feel more like a dog than a man
in that house now. I'll see you back safe. No crying, young cornet!'

We had lost the sound of the carriage. Heriot fell to musing. He remarked
that the accident took away from Mr. Salter the responsibility of
delivering him at Surrey House, but that he, Heriot, was bound, for Mr.
Salter's sake, to conduct me to the doors; an unintelligible refinement
of reasoning, to my wits. We reached our town between two and three in
the morning. There was a ladder leaning against one of the houses in
repair near the school. 'You are here, are you!' said Heriot, speaking to
the ladder: 'you 'll do me a service--the last I shall want in the
neighbourhood.' He managed to poise the ladder on his shoulder, and moved
forward.

'Are we going in through the window?' I asked, seeing him fix the ladder
against the school-house wall.

He said, 'Hush; keep a look-out.'

I saw him mount high. When he tapped at the window I remembered it was
Julia's; I heard her cry out inside. The window rose slowly. Heriot
spoke:

'I have come to say good-bye to you, Julia, dear girl: don't be afraid of
me.' She answered inaudibly to my ears. He begged her to come to him at
once, only once, and hear him and take his hand. She was timid; he had
her fingers first, then her whole arm, and she leaned over him. 'Julia,
my sweet, dear girl,' he said; and she:

'Heriot, Walter, don't go--don't go; you do not care for me if you go.
Oh, don't go.'

'We've come to it,' said Heriot.

She asked why he was not in bed, and moaned on:

'Don't go.' I was speechless with wonder at the night and the scene. They
whispered; I saw their faces close together, and Heriot's arms round her
neck. 'Oh, Heriot, my darling, my Walter,' she said, crying, I knew by
the sound of her voice.

'Tell me you love me,' said Heriot.

'I do, I do, only don't go,' she answered.

'Will you love me faithfully?'

'I will; I do.'

'Say, "I love you, Walter."'

'I love you, Walter.'

'For ever.