The "fiddle-de-dee" conversation with the old dowager had levelled the charming little Spanish castle which Tom had erected down to the ground; so it was with a very sad heart that he called at the parsonage on the following day to acquaint Lizzie and her brother with the upshot of his interview with his mother. He was obliged to speak out straight and tell the truth: and it resulted in his worst fears being realised. Herbert Pringle said he could not hear of an engagement between them, as Mrs Hartshorne would not give her consent; and Lizzie, with a very pale little face and a determined little air, as if she was a martyr and being led to the stake, said she would have to do as her brother told her. Tom, on hearing this, burst into a passion, and said she had "never cared for him," and that "nobody cared for him," and he "wished he was dead," and that he "would go away," and "when some bullet put an end to his life" she "would think of him," a false, "fickle, perjured girl as she was;" and he went off in a tantrum, unmindful of Lizzie's pleading little face, and the longing violet eyes, and the pale, tearless cheek. Tom went straight off to rejoin his regiment, the depot of which was quartered at Aldershot. He told the Colonel, who was an old bachelor, and regarded Tom as a son, that he wanted to exchange and go on foreign service. "Pooh, pooh!" said the old Plunger, who had grown grey in the regiment, and seen much service at its head in India and the Crimea--"Pooh, pooh, Tom; why, you must be crossed in love, my boy!" Tom was very sad over it, and very stern; he could not see anything to joke about. He told the colonel that he was very unhappy at home, and wished to go away for a time; and if he could assist him in furthering his object, he, Tom, would ever remain grateful, and so on. The Colonel was a kind hearted old fellow, and seeing that Tom was sore wounded, he did not rally him any more on the subject, but entered into it _con amore_. "I'll do anything for you, Tom, my boy, that I can. You know that without my saying it; and if you really do want to go abroad, I can put you in the way of it this present moment." "Can you, Colonel?" said Tom, earnestly; "I wish you would." "That I will, my boy! You know the Abyssinian Expedition is just starting out." "By Jove!" said Tom, "that's just what I should like." "Easy, my boy--easy! Don't run away with the squad like that all at once! I'm just coming to it, my boy." "Pray excuse me, sir," said Tom, who was dying for the rather easy-going Colonel to proceed. "All right, my boy--all right. You see, I met my friend Sir Charles, who goes out with the advanced corps, the other day in London, and he told me that if I knew any smart young officer who would like to go out, he would be happy to let him come with him as one of his aides-de-camp, to oblige me." "Oh, sir!" ejaculated Tom, in anxiety.