er to me."

"Now I see why I never could find your name in any list of the officers
in the moves of the regiment! I gave you quite up when I saw no Keith
among those that came home from India. I did believe then that you were
the Colonel Alexander Keith whose death I had seen mentioned, though
I had long trusted to his not being honourable, nor having your first
name."

"Ah! he succeeded to the command after Lady Temple's father. A kind
friend to me he was, and he left me in charge of his son and daughter.
A very good and gallant fellow is that young Alick. I must bring him to
see you some day--"

"Oh! I saw his name; I remember! I gloried in the doings of a Keith; but
I was afraid he had died, as there was no such name with the regiment
when it came home."

"No, he was almost shattered to pieces; but Sir Stephen sent him up the
hills to be nursed by Lady Temple and her mother, and he was sent home
as soon as he could be moved. I was astonished to see how entirely he
had recovered."

"Then you went through all that Indian war?"

"Yes; with Sir Stephen."

"You must show me all your medals! How much you have to tell me! And
then--?"

"Just when the regiment was coming home, my dear old chief was appointed
to the command in Australia, and insisted on my coming with him as
military secretary. He had come to depend on me so much that I could not
well leave him; and in five years there was the way to promotion and to
claiming you at once. We were just settled there, when what I heard made
me long to have decided otherwise, but I could not break with him then.
I wrote to Edward, but had my letter returned to me."

"No wonder; Edward was abroad, all connexion broken."

"I wrote to Beauchamp, and he knew nothing, and I could only wait till
my chief's time should be up. You know how it was cut short, and how
the care of the poor little widow detained me till she was fit for the
voyage. I came and sought you in vain in town. I went home, and found
my brother lonely and dispirited. He has lost his son, his daughters are
married, and he and I are all the brothers left out of the six! He was
urgent that I should come and live with him and marry. I told him I
would, with all my heart, when I had found you, and he saw I was too
much in earnest to be opposed. Then I went to Beauchamp, but Harry knew
nothing about any one. I tried to find out your sister and Dr. Long, but
heard they were gone to Belfast."

"Yes, they lost