‘I shall tell your mother at once.’ ‘Oh, don’t, don’t, please don’t do that! It would kill her if she knew. I’ll promise never to meet him again. Oh, Herbert, do not get me into such terrible trouble--you, of all people, to do it too! I didn’t think you could be so mean.’ Herbert was over-persuaded; at least, he was induced to spare Mrs. Larkins for the present and determined to try first an appeal to the other side. He went to the colonel, Diggle, and told him all. ‘Really, my good fellow,’ said the colonel, ‘it’s no affair of mine. They don’t belong to the regiment, you see. I cannot interfere. I am not answerable for Mr. Farrington’s morals. I’m not indeed.’ Herbert was not to be done. He spoke next to Ernest, the first time he got a chance. ‘Damn it, sir, what business is it of yours?’ asked the officer hotly. ‘It’s very much my business. She is my sister--at least we were brought up together as such,’ the sergeant no less hotly replied. ‘Then why don’t you speak to her instead of to me?’ ‘Because I thought an appeal to you as a gentleman,’--there was a plain sneer in his intonation--‘which I fancied you were, would have the desired effect.’ ‘Do you dare to say I am not a gentleman? By George, I’ll--’ ‘I dare do more than that. Listen to me, Mr. Farrington; I swear you shall not do her harm. I’ll break every bone in your body.’ ‘This is rank mutiny, by George. I’ve a good mind to put you in arrest. Do you dare to threaten your superior officer, sir?’ and Ernest walked off as the simplest way of ending the discussion. Herbert had one other card to play. He wrote a full account of the whole affair to Sir Rupert Farrington, and signed his name. Sir Rupert would probably have cared as little for Ernest’s proceedings, from the moral point of view, as did Diggle, but he had a not unnatural dread of entanglements, especially where so weak a person as his son was concerned. Moreover, although enraged against Larkins, and somewhat uneasy at the tone of the letter in which Herbert made pointed reference to his claims, and hinted mysteriously at certain close relations between the Larkins’ and Farringtons, Sir Rupert felt it wisest not to enlighten Diggle further. He satisfied himself with writing at once to his son-in-law, begging him to let Ernest have leave and send him home. This Diggle did, without other reason than that Sir Rupert wished it, and Ernest, very obediently as it seemed, fell into the trap. The young gentleman was, however, deeper than they gave him credit for being. He went home by the next mail, but Mimie Larkins followed him within a week, as soon as she could give her unhappy parents the slip; and thus, for the second time, Mrs. Larkins had reason to curse the Farrington name. END OF VOL. I. LONDON: ROBSON AND SONS, PRINTERS, PANCRAS ROAD, N.W. TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE