n a week, sir," said Kate, taking the
General's hand within her own. "I seldom ask favors, and as seldom are
they refused me. The chivalry of Austria will surely suffer no attaint
from one whose distinction it is to be _your_ relative, and a Dalton.
Nay, dear uncle, this is the first, the very first request I have ever
made of you. It would not be meet for me to say, in _your_ presence,
what a guerdon is his name for his good conduct."

"You are too sanguine, Madame. You do not know this boy."

"Every thought of his heart I know,--every hope that sustains him. He
himself has told me all his shortcomings."

"His insubordination?"

"Yes."

"Extravagance?"

"Yes."

"His days of imprisonment?"

"Yes."

"His arrests in irons?"

"All--everything; and what are they, save the boyish excesses of one
who, carried away by high spirits, and buoyed up by the flattering sense
of relationship to a great and distinguished name, has been led on to
follies by the mere native warmth of temperament? It is easy to see how
little he thought of himself, and how much of his uncle!"

The old General shook his head dubiously.

"There, dear uncle," said she, pressing him into a seat before a table
with writing-materials, "take that pen and write."

"Write what, dear child?" said he, with a softness very different from
his usual manner.

"I know nothing of the forms, nor the fitting phrases. All I want is
that Frank should have his sword-knot."

"You have learned the proper word, I see," said he, smiling, while he
balanced the pen doubtingly in his fingers "The Colonel of his regiment
is an imperial prince."

"So much the better, uncle. A Hapsburg will know how to reward a
Dalton."

"So, then, we begin thus," said the old General, whose half-suppressed
smile showed that he was merely jesting with her eagerness: "'Imperial
Highness,--the Cadet von Dalton, whose distinction it is to be the
grand-nephew of a very old soldier, and the brother of a very young
princess--'"

"Nay, surely, this will not do," said Kate.

"'A very young princess," resumed the Feld, as he continued to
write, "'who, confiding in her own captivations and your Highnesses
gallantry--'"

"This is but jesting with me, uncle, and I am serious," said she,
poutingly.

"And am not I serious, too, Madame?" cried he, laying down the pen. "If
I ask promotion for a boy whose whole career has been one infraction of
discipline, whose services are all inscribed