"It might have been well," continued Armstrong, slowly, while a sad expression clouded his face for a few moments, "if I had waited, and many a time has my conscience smitten me for my haste. But what could I do? Emmy most unaccountably fell in love wi' me--_thank God_! for I do think that the greatest earthly blessing that can be given to mortal man is the love of a gentle, true-hearted girl. The wealth of the Indies cannot purchase that, and nothing else in life can supply the want of it. Can you wonder that I grasped the treasure when within my reach?" "I certainly cannot; and as certainly I do not blame you," returned the sympathetic Miles. "Of course I fell in love with Emmy," continued the soldier, with a slightly confused look. "I could no more help that than I could help growing up. Could I?" "Certainly not," said Miles. "Well, you see," continued his friend, "as the affair was arranged in heaven, according to general belief, what was I that I should resist? You see, Emmy's father, who's a well-to-do farmer, was willing, and we never gave a thought to Egypt or the war at the time. She will be well looked after while I'm away, and I'll send her every penny of my pay that I can spare, but--" He stopped abruptly, and Miles, respecting his feelings, remarked, by way of changing the subject, that, the pay of a private soldier being so small, very little could be saved out of that. "Not much," assented his comrade; "but, little as it is, we can increase it in various ways. For one thing, I have given up smoking. That will save a little; though, to say truth, I have never expended much on baccy. Then I have joined Miss Robinson's Temperance Band--" "Strange how often that lady's name has been in my ears since I came to Portsmouth!" said Miles. "Not so strange after all," returned Armstrong, "when one reflects that she has been the means of almost changing the character of the town within the last few years--as far at least as concerns the condition of soldiers, as well as many of the poorer classes among its inhabitants-- so Sergeant Gilroy tells me." As some of the information given by Sergeant Gilroy to the young soldier may be interesting to many readers, we quote a few of his own words.