and selfish regret filled his heart. He sate down for action we go below and wait meekly. and wrote to his father, remembering what We should only be in the way of the he had said once before, when he was en- manœuvres that the gallant fellows are pergaged to fight a duel. Dawn faintly streak-forming over head. We shall go no farther ed the sky as he closed this farewell letter. with theth than to the city gate He sealed it, and kissed the superscription. leaving Major O'Dowd to his duty, come He thought how he had deserted that gener- back to the major's wife, and the ladies and ous father, and of the thousand kindnesses the baggage. which the stern old man had done him. Now, the major and his lady, who had He had looked into Amelia's bed-room not been invited to the ball at which in our when he entered; she lay quiet, and her last chapter others of our friends figured, eyes seemed closed, and he was glad that had much more time to take their wholeshe was asleep. On arriving at his quarters some natural rest in bed, than was accorded from the ball, he had found his regimental to people who wished to enjoy pleasure as servant already making preparations for his well as to do duty. "It's my belief, Peggy, departure the man had understood his sig- my dear," said he, as he placidly pulled his nal to be still, and these arrangements were night-cap over his ears, "that there will be very quickly and silently made. Should he such a ball danced in a day or two as some go in and wake Amelia, he thought, or leave of 'em has never heard the chune of;" and a note for her brother to break the news of he was much more happy to retire to rest departure to her? He went in to look at after partaking of a quiet tumbler, than to her once again. figure at any other sort of amusement. Peggy, for her part, would have liked to have shown her turban and bird of paradise at the ball, but for the information which her husband had given her, and which made her very grave. "I'd like ye wake me about half an hour before the assembly beats," the major said to his lady. "Call me at half-past one, Peggy dear, and see me things is ready. May be I'll not come back to breakfast, Mrs. O'D." With which words, which signified his opinion that the regiment would march the next morning, the major ceased talking, and fell asleep. 66 She had been awake when he first entered her room, but had kept her eyes closed, so that even her wakefulness should not seem to reproach him. But when he had returned, so soon after herself, too, this timid little heart had felt more at ease and turning toward him as he stepped softly out of the room, she had fallen into a light sleep. George came in and looked at her again, entering still more softly. By the pale nightlamp he could see her sweet, pale face-the purple eyelids were fringed and closed, and one round arm, smooth and white, lay outside of the coverlid. Good God! how pure she was; how gentle, how tender, and how Mrs. O'Dowd, the good housewife, arrayed friendless! and he, how selfish, brutal, and in curl-papers and a camisole, felt that her black with crime! Heart-stained, and shame-duty was to act, and not to sleep, at this stricken, he stood at the bed's foot, and juncture. Time enough for that," she looked at the sleeping girl. How dared he said, "when Mick's gone;" and so she -who was he, to pray for one so spotless! packed his traveling-valise ready for the God bless her! God bless her! He came march, brushed his cloak, his cap, and other to the bed-side, and looked at the hand, the warlike habiliments, set them out in order little soft hand, lying asleep; and he bent for him; and stowed away in the cloakover the pillow noiselessly toward the gentle pockets a light package of portable refreshpale face. ments, and a wicker-covered flask or pocketpistol, containing near a pint of a remarkably sound Cognac brandy, of which she and the major approved very much, and as soon as the hands of the "repayther" pointed to half-past one, and its interior arrangements (it had a tone quite aqual to a cathaydral, its fair owner considered) knelled forth that fatal hour, Mrs. O'Dowd woke up her major, and had as comfortable a cup of coffee prepared for him as any made that morning in Brussels. And who is there will deny that this worthy lady's preparations betokened affection as much as the fits of tears and hysterics by which more sensitive females exhibited their love, and that their partaking of this coffee, which they drank together while the bugles were sounding the turn-out and the drums beating in the various quarters of the town, was not more useful and to the Two fair arms closed tenderly round his neck as he stooped down. "I am awake, George," the poor child said, with a sob fit to break the little heart that nestled so closely by his own. She was awake, poor soul, and to what? At that moment a bugle from the Place of Arms began sounding clearly, and was taken up through the town; and amidst the drums of the infantry, and the shrill pipes of the Scotch, the whole city awoke. CHAPTER XXX. "THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME." We do not claim to rank among the military novelists. Our place is with the noncombatants. When the decks are cleared purpose than the outpouring of any mere sations with Rebecca, although as a bachelor sentiment could be? The consequence was, they had never given him any disquiet. He that the major appeared on parade quite himself was struck with this phenomenon. trim, fresh, and alert, his well-shaved rosy Hang it," he would say (or perhaps use a countenance, as he sate on horseback, giving still stronger expression out of his simple vocheerfulness and confidence to the whole cabulary), "before I was married I didn't corps. All the officers saluted her when the regiment marched by the balcony on which this brave woman stood, and waved them a cheer as they passed; and I dare say it was not from want of courage, but from a sense of female delicacy and propriety, that she refrained from leading the gallant -th personally into action. On Sundays and at periods of a solemn nature, Mrs. O'Dowd used to read with great gravity out of a large volume of her uncle the dean's sermons. It had been of great comfort to her on board the transport as they were coming home, and were very nearly wrecked on their return from the West Indies. After the regiment's departure she betook herself to the volume for meditation; perhaps she did not understand much of what she was reading, and her thoughts were elsewhere: but the sleep project, with poor Mick's nightcap there on the pillow, was quite a vain one. So it is in the world. Jack or Donald inarches away to glory with his knapsack on his shoulder, stepping out briskly to the tune of "The Girl I left behind me." It is she who remains and suffers-and has the leisure to think, and brood, and remember. Knowing how useless regrets are, and how the indulgence of sentiment only serves to make people more miserable, Mrs. Rebecca wisely determined to give way to no vain feelings of sorrow, and bore the parting from her husband with quite a Spartan equanimity. Indeed, Captain Rawdon himself was much more affected at the leavetaking than the resolute little woman to whom he bade farewell. She had mastered this rude, coarse nature; and he loved and worshiped her with all his faculties of regard and admiration. In all his life he had never been so happy, as, during the past few months, his wife had made him. All former delights of turf, mess, hunting-field, and gambling-table; all previous loves and courtships of milliners, opera-dancers, and the like easy triumphs of the clumsy military Adonis, were quite insipid when compared to the lawful matrimonial pleasures which of late he had enjoyed. She had known perpetually how to divert him; and he had found his house and her society a thousand times more pleasant than any place or company which he had ever frequented from his childhood until now. And he cursed his past follies and extravagances, and bemoaned his vast outlying debts, above all, which must remain forever as obstacles to prevent his wife's advancement in the world. He had often groaned over these in midnight conver care what bills I put my name to, and so long as Moses would wait or Levy would renew for three months, I kept on never minding. But since I'm married, except renewing, of course, I give you my honor I've not touched a bit of stamped paper." 66 66 Rebecca always knew how to conjure away these moods of melancholy. Why, my stupid love," she would say, we have not done with your aunt yet. If she fails us, isn't there what you call the Gazette? or, stop, when your uncle Bute's life drops, I have another scheme. The living has always belonged to the younger brother, and why shouldn't you sell out and go into the church ?" The idea of this conversion set Rawdon into roars of laughter: you might have heard the explosion through the hotel at midnight, and the haw-haws of the great dragoon's voice. General Tufto heard him from his quarters on the first floor below them; and Rebecca acted the scene with great spirit, and preached Rawdon's first sermon, to the immense delight of the general at breakfast. But these were mere by-gone days and talk. When the final news arrived that the campaign was opened, and the troops were to march, Rawdon's gravity became such that Becky rallied him about it in a manner which rather hurt the feelings of the guardsman. You don't suppose I'm afraid, Becky, I should think,” he said, with a tremor in his voice. "But I'm a pretty good mark for a shot, and you see if it brings me down, why I leave one and perhaps two behind me whom I should wish to provide for, as I brought 'em into the scrape. It is no laughing matter that, Mrs. C., anyways." Rebecca by a hundred caresses and kind words tried to soothe the feelings of the wounded lover. It was only when her vivacity and sense of humor got the better of this sprightly creature (as they would do under most circumstances of life indeed), that she would break out with her satire, but she could soon put on a demure face. "Dearest love," she said, "do you suppose I feel nothing?" and, hastily dashing something from her eyes, she looked up in her husband's face with a smile. "Look here," said he. "If I drop, let us see what there is for you. I have had a pretty good run of luck here, and here's two hundred and thirty pounds. I have got ten Napoleons in my pocket. That is as much as I shall want; for the general pays every thing like a prince; and if I'm hit, why you know I cost nothing. Don't cry, little woman; I may live to vex you yet. Well, 143 silence as they hastened after the troops of the general's brigade, which preceded them; and it was not until they were some miles on their way that he left off twirling his mustache and broke silence. I shan't take either of my horses, but shall ride the general's gray charger: it's cheaper, and I told him mine was lame. If I'm done, those two ought to fetch you something. Grigg offered ninety for the mare yesterday, before this confounded news came, and like a fool I wouldn't let her go under the two termined not to give way to unavailing senAnd Rebecca, as we have said, wisely deO's. Bulfinch will fetch his price any day, timentality on her husband's departure. only you'd better sell him in this country, She waved him an adieu from the window, because the dealers have so many bills of and stood there for a moment looking out mine, and so I'd rather he shouldn't go back after he was gone. to England. Your little mare the general and the full gables of the quaint old houses The cathedral towers gave you will fetch something, and there's were just beginning to blush in the sunrise. no d-d livery stable bills here as there are There had been no rest for her that night. in London," Rawdon added, with a laugh. She was still in her pretty ball-dress, her "There's that dressing-case cost me two fair hair hanging somewhat out of curl on hundred--that is, I owe two for it; and the her neck, and the circles round her eyes gold tops and bottles must be worth thirty dark with watching. What a fright I seem," or forty. Please to put that up the spout, she said, examining herself in the glass, ma'am, with my pins, and rings, and watch" and how pale this pink makes one look!" and chain, and things. They cost a precious So she divested herself of this pink raiment; lot of money. Miss Crawley, I know, paid in doing which a note fell out from her cora hundred down for the chain and ticker. sage, which she picked up with a smile, and Gold tops and bottles, indeed! damme, I'm locked into her dressing-box. sorry I didn't take more now. pressed on me a silver-gilt boot-jack, and I of water, and went to bed, and slept very Edwards she put her bouquet of the ball into a glass And then might have had a dressing-case fitted up comfortably. with a silver warming-pan, and a service of plate. But we must make the best of what we've got, Becky, you know." And so, making his last dispositions, Captain Crawley, who had seldom thought about any thing but himself, until the last few months of his life, when love had obtained the mastery over the dragoon, went through the various items of his little catalogue of effects, striving to see how they might be turned into money for his wife's benefit, in case any accident should befall him. He pleased himself by noting down with a pencil, in his big school-boy handwriting, the various items of his portable property which might be sold for his widow's advantage-as for example, 66 barrel by Manton, say 40 guineas; my driving cloak, lined with sable fur, £50; my dueling pistols in rosewood case (same which I shot Captain Marker), £20; my regulation saddle-holsters and housings; my Laurie ditto," and so forth, over all of which articles he made Rebecca the mistress. up at ten o'clock, and partook of coffee, very The town was quite quiet when she woke and grief of the morning's occurrences. requisite and comfortable after the exhaustion Rawdon's calculations of the night previous, This meal over, she resumed honest and surveyed her position. worst befall, all things considered, she was pretty well to do. Should the trinkets and trousseau, in addition to those There were her own which her husband had left behind. Rawdon's generosity when they were first married, has already been described and lauded. Besides these, and the little mare, the general, her slave and worshiper, had made her many very handsome presents in the shape a bankrupt French general's lady, and nuMy double- of cashmere shawls bought at the auction of merous tributes from the jewelers' shops, all of which betokened her admirer's taste and wealth. Rawdon called watches, her apartments As for "tickers," as poor were alive with their clicking, For happenFaithful to his plan of economy, the cap- Rawdon had given to her, was of English ing to mention one night that hers, which tain dressed himself in his oldest and shab- workmanship, and went ill, on the very next biest uniform and epaulets, leaving the new-morning there came to her a little bijou est behind, under his wife's (or it might be his widow's) guardianship. And this famous dandy of Windsor and Hyde Park went off on his campaign with a kit as modest as that of a sergeant, and with something like a prayer on his lips for the woman he was leaving. He took her up from the ground, and held her in his arms for a minute, tight pressed against his strong-beating heart. His face was purple and his eyes dim, as he put her down and left her. He rode by his general's side, and smoked his cigar in marked Leroy, with a chain and cover charm- |