master drove stylish dog-carts, wore pale kid gloves, and received salaries of many hundreds a year.

One thing Colonel the Honourable Neville Fitzneville greatly abhorred, and that was poverty; people had no business to be poor, and if they were so, and couldn't help it, they had no business to enter the 21st Hussars, and so he very soon proved to them; but there was another thing he still more decidedly repudiated, and that was matrimony. A single man himself, and likely to remain so, he abetted celibacy as firmly as if he had been Abbot of a monastery of Cisterian Monks, and denounced matrimony long and loudly on every occasion.

Woe betide the unhappy cornet convicted of a sneaking partiality for some fair specimen of bookmuslin and long flowing ringlets; it was all over with his peace of mind, at mess at any rate; he was roasted within an inch of his life, chaffed on every possible occasion, and it must indeed have been a very deeplyseated passion that survived such a course of treatment. From this little description it may be supposed that there were not many so-called "ladies' men” in the 21st Hussars; they visited very little in a general and like another famous cavalry corps, "didn't way, dance;" at very few balls were their gay and glittering uniforms to be distinguished, and when they did so honour any "réunion" of the fashionable world, it was only to lounge in indolent attitudes against the door-posts, twirling their heavy moustaches, and staring in an easy scrutinising manner at every girl that passed them, occasionally varying the entertainment by yawning wearily, and glancing at each other in a manner meant to express, "By Jove! aw-what an aw-infernal bore aw-this is!"

Now for my visit to Harry Leicester. The cavalry barracks were about a mile from ours, so I rode up ; and on inquiry I found that Mr. Leicester had not yet returned from a parade in the "Phoenix," but would be back in a few minutes.

I thought I might as well wait, as I wished to see him; so dismounting and giving my horse to a soldier, I entered the mess-room, where I found several officers, one or two of whom were known to me. We chatted until, in about ten minutes, the trampling of horses and clank, clank of their paraphernalia, announced the return of the troop to which my cousin belonged; and in about a minute more he came into the room, having been told I was there.

We shook hands cordially.

He was a very handsome fellow, fully six feet in height and proportionably muscular; with a fine open brow, a pair of dark glancing eyes, and I must own a strong dash of the " dare devil" in his general appearance and manner. We fraternized at once, and I felt sure I should like him.

"Come up to my room," he said, "till I get rid of this confounded toggery and don mufti ; no comfort as long as one is in harness."

I followed him to a very comfortable apartment, snugly furnished in bachelor style; two or three luxurious armchairs stood about, and the walls were decorated with a very choice collection of racing and hunting prints, intermixed with portraits of several "pets" of the ballet in scanty drapery and fatiguing attitudes.

"Jackson," he said to his servant, "fetch some sherry and biscuits, and a couple of bottles of pale ale. Sharp's the word now, I'm blind and choked with

dust. I'll speak to you presently, Nugent; just let me get out of this. All right now; have a weed? The sherry will be here immediately, and then we'll set to and do a deal of talking."

I lighted a cigar, Leicester did the same, having previously imbibed a liberal allowance of Bass; and we mutually asked and answered questions relative to our respective proceedings since our last meeting in the days of pinafores and rocking-horses.

"What ages it seems since then," remarked Leicester, " and yet how well I recollect it all. Catching Annie's pet kitten in a trap, when it got off with the loss of its tail; and how poor Annie cried and lamented over the ugly little brute, and went mooning about with the bit of tail as if it had been the finest brush of the season! And now Annie is a staid married lady, a parson's wife, and, by Jove! a very pretty girl; you know I called on them when I was in town?"

"Yes, Annie told me she had seen you," I replied, laughing.

"I know what you are laughing at," he said, following my example, "it is about that blessed baby of her's, and a very fine little fellow he is; but I believe Annie has never forgotten the kitten, and was in agonies lest something of the same kind should happen with her son and heir. I know quite well that there is nothing children like half so much as being tossed into the air and caught again; so of course I began it with little Arthur, who shouted and yelled with delight; but poor Annie got as pale as a sheet, and carried off her darling, though he was in frantic grief at having his game stopped. I am sure she was thinking of the kitten."

"Very likely," I replied, "first babies are precious

things. But Harry, I want to hear more about yourself. Do you like the 21st?"

"As far as I have seen, very much. They are a set of very good fellows on the whole; Colonel Fitzneville is a bit of a bashaw, but pleasant enough when nothing crosses him. The mess is splendid; I hope you will come and judge of that yourself. Can you dine with me to-morrow? It is a guest night, and the colonel has some swells coming, so everything will be in tiptop style."

“I shall be very happy," I replied: “and I hope you will dine with us to-day. Two of your people are coming, friends of Captain Etherege."

"All right. I'm quite at your service. Never met any of your fellows, but I believe you are amazingly popular; I hear of the 144th at every corner. You have a good band, too, but we'll beat you there." "Perhaps so; but we don't pay quite what you do for keeping it up."

"Don't speak of that! It's a regular extortion. But what can one do? The colonel will have it A 1, and in that case it follows that our pockets must bleed for it. But I grumble at nothing now, I am so thankful at getting back to a Christian country. How long will it be till your bad star carries you 'Eastward Ho?'"

66

Oh, some years, I believe, unless anything particular occurs. But I can't understand your hating India so much; I thought it was rather a jolly place, heaps of fun, and then double pay."

"Double pay, indeed! Much good that does you when you have to give about six times as much for everything as you do in this country. You soon fin d to your cost whether it is cheaper or not. Oh Lord!

the vile place; I creep when I think of it. The heat we'll not mention, though I don't believe the lower regions can be much worse; fancy living in the hottest forcing-house you ever were in, and you'll have a mild notion of it. Then the horrid, parched, baking ground, that seemed to crack as you walked on it;. not a drop of moisture to lay the dust for months. One day there came a shower, and it's a positive fact I went across the road to have the unspeakable pleasure of walking through a puddle; I quite enjoyed it, and splashed about like children in a gutter."

"Come, Harry!" I exclaimed, "this is too strong; you are dealing in travellers' tales now!"

"Not a bit of it," he replied; "ask any man who has been out, and he'll tell you the same. Fancy pulling on your boot in a hurry, feeling something in it, dashing it off instantly, when out jumps a fine lively centipede. Nice, eh? Or you want to know what o'clock it is, and put your hand under the pillow to get at your watch. cold, slimy thing touches you; you bolt out of bed, and away wriggles a charming specimen of a particularly deadly snake. Very jolly that! Well, these agreeable little incidents occur every day."

A

I laughed at the air of extreme disgust with which Leicester knocked the ashes off the end of his cigar, and then thrust himself into an easier position in his low rocking-chair.

"Ah! these things do very well to laugh at now, when you have got rid of the cursed annoyance; but by Jove! they are no grinning matter at the time. Of course it is not quite so bad in Calcutta, or a few of the large stations; but I am speaking of outlandish