f a decision which I
conjectured would lean more towards the goodness of a practical joke than
the equity of the transaction. The party at mess soon after separated,
and I wished my friend good night for the last time before meeting him as
a bride-groom.

I arranged every thing in order for my start. My pistol-case I placed
conspicuously before me, to avoid being forgotten in the haste of
departure; and, having ordered my servant to sit up all night in the
guard-room until he heard the carriage at the barrack-gate, threw myself
on my bed, but not to sleep. The adventure I was about to engage in
suggested to my mind a thousand associations, into which many of the
scenes I have already narrated entered. I thought how frequently I had
myself been on the verge of that state which Curzon was about to try, and
how it always happened that when nearest to success, failure had
intervened. From my very school-boy days my love adventures had the same
unfortunate abruptness in their issue; and there seemed to be something
very like a fatality in the invariable unsuccess of my efforts at
marriage. I feared, too, that my friend Curzon had placed himself in
very unfortunate hands--if augury were to be relied upon. Something will
surely happen, thought I, from my confounded ill luck, and all will be
blown up. Wearied at last with thinking I fell into a sound sleep for
about three-quarters of an hour, at the end of which I was awoke by my
servant informing me that a chaise and four were drawn up at the end of
the barrack lane.

"Why, surely, they are too early, Stubber? It's only four o'clock."

"Yes, sir; but they say that the road for eight miles is very bad, and
they must go it almost at a walk."

That is certainly pleasant, thought I, but I'm in for it now, so can't
help it.

In a few minutes I was up and dressed, and so perfectly transformed by
the addition of a brown scratch-wig and large green spectacles, and a
deep-flapped waistcoat, that my servant, on re-entering my room, could
not recognise me. I followed him now across the barrack-yard, as, with
my pistol-case under one arm and a lantern in his hand, he proceeded to
the barrack-gate.

As I passed beneath the adjutant's window, I saw a light--the sash was
quickly thrown open, and Curzon appeared.

"Is that you, Harry?"

"Yes--when do you start?"

"In about two hours. I've only eight miles to go--you have upwards of
twelve, and no time to lose. God bles