It was hard work, however, to keep on living in the old place where everything reminded him so much of the past, both of joy and pain. He would have asked his friend, Villemet, to take compassion on his loneliness, and come and stay with him awhile; but the irrepressible fellow had gone off to the wars some time ago, and joined the army of Napoleon, distinguishing himself greatly at Waterloo. Again and again had Tournier’s thoughts reverted to Alice Cosin, but each time he had repelled the pleasing idea as an impossibility. “How could I,” he repeated, as the fair vision floated away, “for my selfish ends spoil the happiness of a friend like him?”
Fortified by this resolution, he determined at length to find consolation in fulfilling his promise of a visit to England. There was no
reason why he should not enjoy the immense pleasure of seeing his friend again, and of course his sister. It would do him all the good in the world.
So he started with gladness to visit once more the land to which he had been unwillingly conveyed as a prisoner some seven years before. The old welcome was renewed with yet greater heartiness, and Tournier felt for the first time at home since his mother’s death. Only, at their first greeting, he thought it proper to shew a little sort of restraint in addressing Alice, and he could not but notice that this assumed restraint made her beaming face look rather grave.
One of the first things Tournier said he must see was the barracks.
“They have just finished pulling them all down,” said Cosin. “Every building except Major Kelly’s house, and the officers’ quarters has been removed and the material sold by auction. However, you would like to see the
old spot. I am sorry I cannot go with you to-morrow, but Alice can shew you the way if you have forgotten it!”
So they rode there the next morning.
“It seems like a dream,” said Tournier, as he gazed for a long while upon the site where, as he too well knew, so many hearts had ached for years. “Who is going to live in the house of Major Kelly?”