They were now close to me, and I carried the standard of the Light Troop, with the staff resting on the toe of my right boot, so the young lady, a handsome girl with fair, almost golden hair, a delicate complexion, and dark blue eyes, turned and looked fully at me. She was my cousin Aurora! Though it was for me she had been looking, she coloured deeply, bowed and smiled, and then grew pale--so pale that her friend the staff major observed it, and said, drily: "So, Miss Gauntlet, you have found him, then?" "Yes--oh yes, and knew him immediately." "Then I hope you are pleased," said the major, biting his nether-lip and adroitly catching the bridle of her horse, which reared at a sudden crash of the trumpets that drowned her reply as the cavalcade passed on. The ranks were now closed. "Dress the line by the standards, Major Maitland," cried Colonel Preston. "Who is that fool yonder throwing the whole line out?" he added, as a sergeant's horse became restive and reared on its hind legs. "A fool, but for whom, Colonel, you would have been years ago in your grave at Stapledyke," replied the sergeant, quietly. "Egad you are right, Duff, for you saved my life there--forgive my anger, comrade," said the kind old officer. "I would forgive you any thing, Colonel," replied the old sergeant in the same under tone, while his eyes filled; "for you and I are the last left of the Greys who rode in the charge on the bloody day in South Beveland." The review was soon over; we passed the general in open column of troops, charged in squadrons and in line, amid whirlwinds of dust--went through sword and carbine exercise, were complimented by the general and harangued by the colonel; then the men were dismissed to their quarters, while the officers joined the staff and the ladies at luncheon, in a large marquee which had been erected on a pleasant lawn for the purpose. A stranger amid that gay throng, and caring little on the eve of embarkation whether or not I made new acquaintances, I was attending to one or two stout and elderly mammas, who being neither handsome nor blooming, had been somewhat neglected; and while doing the honours with our cold fowl, pink cream and champagne, a voice close by me said: "And so, Basil, you are going to the seat of war?" I looked around, and found Aurora Gauntlet's blue eyes bent on me with something of sad earnestness. "You will shake hands with me, Basil--won't you?" I coloured and trembled with pride, perplexity, and even annoyance; but pressed her hand in mine, though the wrongs I had suffered at the behest of our grandfather swelled up bitterly in my heart. "So, Basil," she resumed, smiling, "I have brought your military escapade to a creditable--to a pleasant termination; have I not?"