“You are aware, sir,” said Kate, timidly, “that papa's means are not as they once were; circumstances of economy first suggested his coming abroad.” “A reason that always has appeared to me insufficient,” said the other, sternly. “He could have reduced his establishment at home--fewer hunters--less splendid banquets.” “Hunters and banquets!” sighed Kate; “how little he knows of us!” “Here I see nothing but the best fruits of his system,” said he, kissing her hand with gallantry; “no cost could be accounted too much that aided the attainment of such perfection. I am too old a courtier not to distinguish between mere native gracefulness and that more polished elegance which comes of refined intercourse. My niece is worthy to be a princess! But your brother--” “Oh! what of dear Frank?” cried she, eagerly. “Simply this, Madame: habits of wasteful expenditure have unsuited him to the stern realities of a soldier's life. With his fortune and his tastes, he should have sought service among those popinjays that English tailors make lancers or hussars of. He might have won the laurels that are gathered on Honnslow or St. James's Park; he might have been distinguished in that barbaric warfare you call an Indian campaign; but here, in this empire, where soldiering means discipline, self-denial, hardship, endurance!--I was eight years a cadet, Madame, twelve a sous-lieutenant. I saw the decoration I should have received given to another. The Dienst Kreutz I had won was refused me, because I had not served twenty years; and yet, by accepting these and hundreds like them as the inevitable necessities of the service, I am what now you see me.” “And if Frank will be but patient--” “He may be a corporal within a year, Madame,” said the Feld, gravely, and with the air of a man who had advanced a somewhat bold pledge. “But he must be an officer within a week, sir,” said Kate, taking the General's hand within her own. “I seldom ask favors, and as seldom are they refused me. The chivalry of Austria will surely suffer no attaint from one whose distinction it is to be _your_ relative, and a Dalton. Nay, dear uncle, this is the first, the very first request I have ever made of you. It would not be meet for me to say, in _your_ presence, what a guerdon is his name for his good conduct.” “You are too sanguine, Madame. You do not know this boy.” “Every thought of his heart I know,--every hope that sustains him. He himself has told me all his shortcomings.” “His insubordination?” “Yes.” “Extravagance?” “Yes.” “His days of imprisonment?” “Yes.” “His arrests in irons?” “All--everything; and what are they, save the boyish excesses of one who, carried away by high spirits, and buoyed up by the flattering sense of relationship to a great and distinguished name, has been led on to follies by the mere native warmth of temperament? It is easy to see how little he thought of himself, and how much of his uncle!” The old General shook his head dubiously.