Your
income would be insufficient to enable you to live, with comfort,
as a country gentleman; and you would naturally find time lie heavy
upon your hands, if you had nothing to do.'

"He was good enough to say that he thought his daughter's happiness
would be safe in my hands and, as she would be able to have every
luxury in India, he thought that the arrangement would be a very
satisfactory one. It is awfully good of him, of course, for she
could have made an infinitely better match."

"You have, of course, not settled anything about the date,
Hallett?"

"No; I expect we shall settle about that when I see her, tomorrow.
Of course, it must be pretty early, as we had letters, yesterday,
to go up to town to be examined by the board; and we have both
picked up so much that, I fancy, we shall be ordered back to our
regiments pretty sharply. You see, every man is wanted at present
and, as we both had a year's leave before we went out to West
Africa, it is not unnatural that they should send us off again, as
soon as they can. I dare say, however, they will give us a couple
of months; and I suppose we shall want a month for our honeymoon,
in which case we ought to be spliced in a month's time; if she can
get ready in that time, which of course she can do, if she hurries
up the milliners and other people."

"I have no doubt she could, in the circumstances," Lisle laughed.
"Well, old man, I do congratulate you most heartily. She certainly
is a very charming young woman. I expect I shall not get leave
again, till the regiment comes back; which will be another five
years yet, and perhaps two or three years longer, if there is any
action going on anywhere. I can tell you I am not so hot about
fighting as I used to be. The Tirah was sharp, but it was nothing
to West Africa, which was enough to cure one of any desire to take
part in fighting.

"If we are going to have a fight with Russia, I certainly should
like to take part in that. That would be a tremendous affair, and I
fancy that our Indian soldiers will give a good account of
themselves. If it is to be, I do hope it will come before I leave
the army. I am certainly in no hurry to do so."

"You would be a fool, if you were," Hallett said. "Thanks to your
luck in getting a commission at sixteen, and to the loss of so many
officers in the Tirah, you are now a captain at twenty-one,
certainly the youngest captain in the service. Of course, if there
is no war, you can't e