Then I thought of Ruth, and becoming sad related to them my love affair, at which they shocked me very much by laughing loudly, and for their own amusement made me describe her hair, eyes, hands and voice again and again, as I had drunk too deeply to perceive how they quizzed me. However after a time, it seemed to me, that they too became maudlin, as they rehearsed several of their tender experiences. "There was a time," said the Corporal, "when I too imagined I could love a girl for ever." "For ever is a long time, Jack!" "I still love with ardour--" "For a day," suggested Kirkton, and then he added, with a tipsy air of sentimental sadness, "love sheds a halo over everything, and brings us nearer heaven." "Indeed! By Jove, it nearly sent me the _other_ way once, and almost brought me to a General Court Martial." "Oh--you mean your scrape with--" "The countess--yes--but silence on that matter, Tom," replied the corporal, whose face flushed, and he gave a bitter smile. There was a pause during which, though very tipsy. I surveyed him with interest, for every line of his face expressed stern loftiness, and then something of sadness and mortification. "Well--well," said Kirkton, "drink and forget." "No--no more for me, and you, Tom, have had quite enough." "Bah! another glass--for sobriety, there is not my equal in the service--in the Greys most certainly--" "How stands the glass around? For shame, ye take no care, my boys!" Of this night I remember no more, than falling asleep--I am ashamed to say--across the table, during Kirkton's song, completely overcome by what I had imbibed; and thus ended the first episode of my new career. CHAPTER VI. ENLISTMENT. Early morning brought sobriety, with a headache, a burning thirst, and deep reflection. I had enlisted as a private dragoon: I, the heir to a baronetcy; but it was a baronetcy that would not bring with it an acre of land, and by the enmity of its present possessors, I was then on the verge of total want. What other path was open to me than this, which it seemed as if the hand of destiny now indicated? "Yes--yes," thought I, "it is the _dictum_ of fate!" My position had been one of extreme difficulty. I could not dig, and to beg--even from Sir Basil--I was ashamed; besides, I had a spirit that revolted at the idea of eating bread that was won either by falsehood or servility. "'Tis done!" said I, thinking aloud, "in the plain red coat of a trooper, none will ever discover Basil Gauntlet--the disinherited heir of Nether wood!" "So you are still resolved to be one of us?" said Charters, when we met early in the morning. "Yes." "'Tis well; life is a lottery--let us go and draw," he observed, figuratively. "I would rather go and drink," added Kirkton, who, after our late potations, looked rather red about the eyes. "Try a dram--and then hey for the road; but we must have our new comrade attested. Landlord, where is a justice of the peace to be found?"