"She shall see," thought I, "that years of dissipation in a barrack or guardroom are not necessary to qualify a high-minded legal practitioner for assuming his place in the ranks of the defenders of his country. She shall own that native valour is an impulse, not a science. She shall confess that the volunteer who becomes a soldier, simply because the commonwealth requires it, is actuated by a higher motive than the regular, with his prospects of pay and of promotion. What was Karl Theodore Körner, author of the Lyre and Sword, but a simple Saxon yeoman? and yet is there any name, Blucher's not excepted, which stirs the military heart of Germany more thrillingly than his? And, upon my honour, even as a matter of taste, I infinitely prefer this blue uniform to the more dashing scarlet. It is true they might have given us tails to the jacket," continued I soliloquising, as a young vagabond who passed, hazarded a contumelious remark regarding the symmetry of my nether person. "But, on the whole, it is a manly and a simple garb, and Edith cannot be such a fool as not to appreciate the motives which have led me to assume it." So saying, I rung the Bogles' bell. Edith was in the drawing-room, and there also, to my no small mortification, was Lieutenant Roper. They were sitting together on the sofa, and I rather thought Miss Bogle started as I came in. "Goodness gracious! Mr M'Whirter," cried she with a giggle--Edith never looked well when she giggled--"What _have_ you been doing with yourself?" "I am not aware, Miss Bogle, that there is anything very extraordinary"---- "O dear, no! I beg your pardon for laughing, but really you look so funny! I have been so used, you know, to see you in a black coat, that the contrast is rather odd. Pray forgive my ignorance, Mr M'Whirter, but what _is_ that dress?" "The uniform of the Mid-Lothian Yeomanry Cavalry, madam. We are going into quarters next week." "How very nice! Do you know it is one of the prettiest jackets I ever saw? Don't you think so, Mr Roper?" "Veway much so," replied Roper, reconnoitring me calmly through his eyeglass. "A veway handsome turn-out indeed. 'Pon my honour, I had no idea they got up things so cleverly in the fencibles"---- "Yeomanry, if you please, Lieutenant Roper!" "Ah, yes! Yeomanry--so it is. I say, M'Whirter, 'pon my soul, do you know, you look quite killing! Do, like a good fellow, just march to the corner of the room, and let us have a look at you on the other side." "Oh do, Mr M'Whirter!" supplicated, or rather supplemented Edith. I felt as if I could have shot him. "You'll excuse me, Roper, for not going through drill just now. If you like to come to the review, you shall see how our regiment can behave. At any rate, we shall be happy to see you at mess." "Oh suttingly, suttingly! Veway good things those yeomanry messes. Always a deal of claret, I believe." "And pray, Mr M'Whirter, what rank do you hold in that distinguished corps?" asked Edith.