ong weary months of training--when pastry was, as
it were, an abomination unto him--when his lips kept themselves
undefiled from dryest Champagne or soundest claret--when he fled, fast
as Cinderella, from the pleasantest company at the stroke of the
midnight chimes? Of course he feels deeply injured, and would have
forgiven the absentee far more easily if the latter had beaten him
fairly, on his merits, breasting the handkerchief first by half a dozen
yards.

On this principle, Miss Tresilyan labored all that evening under an
impression that Keene had treated her very ill, and was prepared to
resent it accordingly. Another there besides herself felt puzzled and
uncomfortable. Harry Molyneux could not understand it at all. Royston
had seemed so very anxious in the morning to induce Fanny to go--a
proceeding which would probably involve the presence of her
"inseparable;" and disinterested persuasion was by no means in the Cool
Captain's line. So Harry went wandering about in a purposeless,
disconsolate fashion for some time, till he found himself near Cecil. I
fancy he had an indistinct idea that some apology was owing to _her_ for
his chief's unaccountable absence; at all events, he began to confide
his misgivings on the subject as soon as the men who surrounded her
moved away. They soon did so; for The Tresilyan had a way, quite
peculiar to herself, of conveying to those whom she wished to get rid of
that their audience was ended, without speaking one word. There was a
very unusual element of impatient pettishness in her reply.

"What a curious fascination Major Keene appears to exercise over his
friends! I suppose you would think it quite wrong to be amused any where
unless he were present to sanction it. Do you become a free agent again
when you are given up entirely to your own devices? And do _all_
subalterns keep up that veneration for their senior officers after they
have left the service? It seems to be carrying the _esprit du corps_
rather far."

Harry laughed out his own musical laugh; even the imputation of
dependency and helplessness which is apt to ruffle most people fell back
harmlessly from his impenetrable good-humor. "I dare say it does look
very absurd. But you ought to have lived with him as long as I have done
to understand how naturally Royston gains his influence, and makes us do
what he chooses."

"Certainly I can not understand it. The _poco-curante_ style is so very
common just now that one