is an exceedingly nice girl and, if I
were ten years older, I might have been smitten myself; and then,
you know, your chance would have been nowhere."

"I quite feel that," Hallett said; "a V.C. is a thing no girl can
stand against.

"If you will take me, I will go down with you and stay a little
time, and then try my luck."

"That you certainly shall do. I can hardly do anything in the way
of festivities, at present; but there is no reason why you should
not enter into anything that is going on."

So they went down together. Ten days later, all the families round
came to pay visits of condolence; and to each Lisle said that,
although he himself could not think of going out, at present, his
friend Hallett, who had come to stay with him for a month, would be
glad to join in any quiet festivity. So Hallett was frequently
invited out, Lisle accompanying him only to the very quietest of
dinners.

One evening Hallett returned in the highest glee.

"Congratulate me, my dear fellow," he said. "Miss Merton has
accepted me and, after she had done so, I had the inevitable talk
with her father. He told me, frankly, that he had hoped that his
daughter would make a better match. I of course agreed with him,
heartily; but he went on to say that, after all, our happiness was
the first consideration, and that he felt sure that it would be
secured by her marriage with me. He said that he should allow her
four hundred pounds a year, during his and her mother's lifetime.
At their death there would be a small addition to her allowance,
but naturally the bulk of his property would go to her brother. Of
course, I expressed myself as infinitely grateful. I said that he
had not enquired about my income, but that I had three hundred
pounds a year, in addition to my pay; and should probably, some
day, come into more. He expressed himself as content and, as I had
expected, asked me whether I intended to leave the army. I said
that that was a matter for his daughter to decide; but that, for my
part, I should certainly prefer to remain in the service, for I
really did not see what I should do with myself, if I left it. I
said that I had been very fortunate in having, to some small
extent, distinguished myself; but that if, after some experience of
India, she did not care for the life, I would promise to retire."

"'I think you are right,' he said. 'It is a bad thing for a young
man of seven or eight and twenty to be without employment.