ssion in them
which affected Private Richard Doubledick in a very remarkable way. They
were bright, handsome, dark eyes,--what are called laughing eyes
generally, and, when serious, rather steady than severe,--but they were
the only eyes now left in his narrowed world that Private Richard
Doubledick could not stand. Unabashed by evil report and punishment,
defiant of everything else and everybody else, he had but to know that
those eyes looked at him for a moment, and he felt ashamed. He could
not so much as salute Captain Taunton in the street like any other
officer. He was reproached and confused,--troubled by the mere
possibility of the Captain's looking at him. In his worst moments, he
would rather turn back, and go any distance out of his way, than
encounter those two handsome, dark, bright eyes.

One day, when Private Richard Doubledick came out of the Black hole,
where he had been passing the last eight and forty hours, and in which
retreat he spent a good deal of his time, he was ordered to betake
himself to Captain Taunton's quarters. In the stale and squalid state of
a man just out of the Black hole, he had less fancy than ever for being
seen by the Captain; but he was not so mad yet as to disobey orders, and
consequently went up to the terrace overlooking the parade-ground, where
the officers' quarters were; twisting and breaking in his hands, as he
went along, a bit of the straw that had formed the decorative furniture
of the Black hole.

"Come in!" cried the Captain, when he knocked with his knuckles at the
door. Private Richard Doubledick pulled off his cap, took a stride
forward, and felt very conscious that he stood in the light of the dark,
bright eyes.

There was a slight pause. Private Richard Doubledick had put the straw
in his mouth, and was gradually doubling it up into his windpipe and
choking himself.

"Doubledick," said the Captain, "do you know where you are going to?"

"To the devil, sir," faltered Doubledick.

"Yes," returned the Captain. "And very fast."

Private Richard Doubledick turned the straw of the Black hole in his
mouth, and made a miserable salute of acquiescence.

"Doubledick," said the Captain, "since I entered his Majesty's service,
a boy of seventeen, I have been pained to see many men of promise going
that road; but I have never been so pained to see a man determined to
make the shameful journey as I have been, ever since you joined the
regiment, to see you."

Priv