There stood, a young man, a soldier from head to foot, slight, active, neatly limbed, and of middle height, with a clear brown cheek, dark hair and moustache, and the well-remembered frank hazel eyes, though their frolic and mischief were dimmed, and they had grown grave and steadfast, and together with the firm-set lip gave the impression of a mind resolutely bent on going through some great ordeal without flinching or murmuring.  With a warm grasp of the hand Mr. Ogilvie said—-

“Why, Brownlow, I should not have known you.”

“I should have known you, sir, anywhere,” said Jock, amazed to find the Ogre of old times no venerable seignior, but a man scarce yet middle-aged.

They talked of Mr. Ogilvie’s late tour, in scenes well known to Jock, and thence they came to the whereabouts of all the family, Armine’s health and Robert’s appointment, till they felt intimate; and the unobtrusive sympathy of the old friend opened the youth’s heart, and he made much plain that had been only half understood from Mrs. Morgan’s letters.  Of his eldest brother and sister, Jock said little; but there was no need to explain why his mother was straitening herself, and remaining at Belforest when it had become so irksome to her.

“And you are going out to India?” said Mr. Ogilvie.

“That’s not coming off, sir.”

“Indeed, I thought you were to have a staff appointment.”

“It would not pay, sir; and that is a consideration.”

“Then have you anything else in view?”

“The hospitals,” said Jock, with a poor effort to seem diverted; “the other form of slaughter.”  Then as his friend looked at him with concerned and startled eyes, he added, “Unless there were some extraordinary chance of loot.  You see the pagoda tree is shaken bare, and I could do no more than keep myself and have nothing for my mother, and I am afraid she will need it.  It is a chance whether Allen, at his age, or Armine, with his health, can do much, and some one must stay and get remunerative work.”

“Is not the training costly?”

“Her Majesty owes me something.  Luckily I got my commission by purchase just in time, and I shall receive compensation enough to carry me through my studies.  We shall be all together with Friar Brownlow, who takes the same line in the old house in Bloomsbury, where we were all born.  That she really does look forward to.”

“I should think so, with you to look after her,” said Mr. Ogilvie heartily.

“Only she can’t get into it till Lady Day.  And I wanted to ask you, Mr. Ogilvie, do you know anything about expenses down at your place?  What would tolerable lodgings be likely to come to, rent of rooms, I mean, for my mother and the two young ones.  Armie has not wintered in England since that Swiss adventure of ours, and I suppose St. Cradocke’s would be as good a place for him as any.”