My resolution was immediate, but it was a different matter carrying
it into effect. After many applications, and even entreaties, the
most favourable opening I could obtain was the offer of an ensign's
commission. It was almost beyond even my self-abnegation to accept
such degradation. Only by the thought of Margaret, and the consoling
comfort that I was making the sacrifice entirely for her sake,
joined with the absolute promise of the minister that I should not
long remain in such a subordinate position, could I bring myself
to the point of acceptance.

Meantime the Vicomte had not in any degree taken a proper advantage
of my disinterestedness; for, instead of winning back the affections
of his adored one by direct and oft-repeated attack, he withdrew
himself entirely from her company, and plunged into a course of
the most reckless dissipation, making Paris ring with the tales of
his extravagance and folly. Then suddenly, to every one's
astonishment, he threw up his commission, and disappeared so
effectually, that not even his intimates knew what had come to him.
Those at the rue Dauphine were as ignorant as the rest of the world,
and though his withdrawal was unquestionably a relief to Margaret,
it was a source of deep mortification and sorrow to Lady Jane.
However, neither letters nor inquiries were of any avail, and the
most rigorous search only elicited the fact that no one knew what
had become of the Vicomte Gaston de Trincardel, beyond that he had
voluntarily disappeared without any adequate motive being assigned.

At length the time came for me to embark for my miserable command.

Margaret made but little effort to conceal her grief. "It is
dreadful, dreadful, this parting!" she cried. "One after another
I am losing those to whom I am most attached--first my brother,
then Gaston, and now you. I am, indeed, 'a stranger in a strange
land,' and if aught happens to Lady Jane, think what will become
of me? But I am not thinking of myself alone," she added, quickly.
"Believe me, my greatest sorrow is that you, who have sacrificed
so much for your loyalty, who have met with such reverses, such
pitiful ill return for all your devotion to your King, are now
doomed to an exile worse than before--to the acceptance of a rank
that is an insult to your condition, to banishment in a savage
country far from all those you love--and you accept it all without
a murmur. Now I know, for you have taught me, the definition of