“By the wars!” muttered old Dan; the exclamation being a favorite one with him to express astonishment at any startling event. Then recovering himself, he added, “I think I heard there were three or four of ye stopping up there at Cobham; but I never go out myself anywhere. I live very retired down here.” “I am not surprised at that. When an old soldier can nestle down in a lovely nook like this, he has very little to regret of what the world is busy about outside it.” “And they are all ruining themselves, besides,” said M'Cormick, with one of his malicious grins. “There's not a man in this county is n't mortgaged over head and ears. I can count them all on my fingers for you, and tell what they have to live on.” “You amaze me,” said Stapylton, with a show of interest “And the women are as bad as the men: nothing fine enough for them to wear; no jewels rich enough to put on! Did you ever hear them mention _me?_” asked he, suddenly, as though the thought flashed upon him that he had himself been exposed to comment of a very different kind. “They told me of an old retired officer, who owned a most picturesque cottage, and said, if I remember aright, that the view from one of the windows was accounted one of the most perfect bits of river landscape in the kingdom.” “Just the same as where you 're standing,--no difference in life,” said M'Cormick, who was not to be seduced by the flattery into any demonstration of hospitality. “I cannot imagine anything finer,” said Stapylton, as he threw himself at the foot of a tree, and seemed really to revel in enjoyment of the scene. “One might, perhaps, if disposed to be critical, ask for a little opening in that copse yonder. I suspect we should get a peep at the bold cliff whose summit peers above the tree-tops.” “You'd see the quarry, to be sure,” croaked out the Major, “if that's what you mean.” “May I offer you a cigar?” said Stapylton, whose self-possession was pushed somewhat hard by the other. “An old campaigner is sure to be a smoker.” “I am not. I never had a pipe in my mouth since Walcheren.” “Since Walcheren! You don't say that you are an old Walcheren man?” “I am, indeed. I was in the second battalion of the 103d,--the Duke's Fusiliers, if ever you heard of them.” “Heard of them! The whole world has heard of them; but I did n't know there was a man of that splendid corps surviving. Why, they lost--let me see--they lost every officer but--” Here a vigorous effort to keep his cigar alight interposed, and kept him occupied for a few seconds. “How many did you bring out of action,--four was it, or five? I'm certain you had n't six!” “We were the same as the Buffs, man for man,” said M'Cormick. “The poor Buffs!--very gallant fellows too!” sighed Stapylton. “I have always maintained, and I always will maintain, that the Walcheren expedition, though not a success, was the proudest achievement of the British arms.”