And we can have a blanc-mange for a sweet."

Mrs. Parsons went to give the necessary orders, and the Colonel walked
up to his son's room to see, for the hundredth time, that everything was
in order. They had discussed for days the question whether the young
soldier should be given the best spare bedroom or that which he had used
from his boyhood. It was wonderful the thought they expended in
preparing everything as they fancied he would like it; no detail slipped
their memory, and they arranged and rearranged so that he should find
nothing altered in his absence. They attempted to satisfy in this manner
the eager longing of their hearts; it made them both a little happier to
know that they were actually doing something for their son. No pain in
love is so hard to bear as that which comes from the impossibility of
doing any service for the well-beloved, and no service is so repulsive
that love cannot make it delightful and easy. They had not seen him for
five years, their only child; for he had gone from Sandhurst straight to
India, and thence, on the outbreak of war, to the Cape. No one knew how
much the lonely parents had felt the long separation, how eagerly they
awaited his letters, how often they read them.

* * *

But it was more than parental affection which caused the passionate
interest they took in Jamie's career. They looked to him to restore the
good name which his father had lost. Four generations of Parsons had
been in the army, and had borne themselves with honour to their family
and with credit to themselves. It was a fine record that Colonel Parsons
inherited of brave men and good soldiers; and he, the truest, bravest,
most honourable of them all, had dragged the name through the dust; had
been forced from the service under a storm of obloquy, disgraced,
dishonoured, ruined.

Colonel Parsons had done the greater portion of his service creditably
enough. He had always put his God before the War Office, but the result
had not been objectionable; he looked upon his men with fatherly
affection, and the regiment, under his command, was almost a model of
propriety and seemliness. His influence was invariably for good, and his
subordinates knew that in him they had always a trusty friend; few men
had gained more love. He was a mild, even-tempered fellow, and in no
circumstance of life forgot to love his neighbour as himself; he never
allowed it to slip his memory that even the lowest caste native had an
im