o more than ordinary suffering,
privation, and disease--without that rallying power of hope--that Will,
and Desire to Live, which constitute the true stamina of Youth. And
I have always set a black mark upon those who go into war joyless and
despondent. Send a young fellow to the camp with his spirits broken, his
heart heavy as a lump of lead, and the first of those epidemics, which
thin ranks more than the cannon, says to itself, 'There is a man
for me!' Any doctor will tell you that, even at home, the gay and
light-hearted walk safe through the pestilence, which settles on the
moping as malaria settles on a marsh. Confound Guy Darrell's ancestors,
they have spoilt Queen Victoria as good a young soldier as ever wore
a sword by his side! Six months ago, and how blithely Lionel Haughton
looked forth to the future!--all laurel!--no cypress! And now I feel as
if I had shaken hands with a victim sacrificed by Superstition to
the tombs of the dead. I cannot blame Darrell: I dare say in the same
position I might do the same. But no; on second thoughts, I should not.
If Darrell does not choose to marry and have sons of his own, he has no
right to load a poor boy with benefits, and say: 'There is but one way
to prove your gratitude; remember my ancestors, and be miserable for the
rest of your days!' Darrell, forsooth, intends to leave to Lionel the
transmission of the old Darrell name; and the old Darrell name must
not be tarnished by the marriage on which Lionel has unluckily set his
heart! I respect the old name; but it is not like the House of Vipont--a
British Institution. And if some democratical cholera, which does not
care a rush for old names, carries off Lionel, what becomes of the old
name then? Lionel is not Darrell's son; Lionel need not perforce take
the old name. Let the young man live as Lionel Haughton, and the old
name die with Guy Darrell!

"As to the poor girl's birth and parentage, I believe we shall never
know them. I quite agree with Darrell that it will be wisest never to
inquire. But I dismiss, as farfetched and improbable, his supposition
that she is Gabrielle Desmaret's daughter. To me it is infinitely more
likely, either that the deposition of the nurse, which poor Willy gave
to Darrell, and which Darrell showed to me, is true (only that Jasper
was conniving at the temporary suspension of his child's existence while
it suited his purpose)--or that, at the worst, this mysterious young
lady is the daugh