“I thought they made their heads better at Sandhurst.”
“They used in my time,” said Upton; “but you have no idea how the thing has gone down.”
“Quite true,” chimed in another; “and I don't think we 've seen the worst of it yet. Do you know, they talk of an examination for all candidates for commissions!”
“Well, I must say,” lisped the guardsman, “I believe it would be an improvement for the 'line.'”
“The household brigade can dispense with information,” said an infantry captain.
“I demur to the system altogether,” said Linton. “Physicians tell us that the intellectual development is always made at the expense of the physical, and as one of the duties of a British army is to suffer yellow fever in the West Indies and cholera in the East, I vote for leaving them strong in constitution and intact in strength as vacant heads and thoughtless skulls can make them.”
“Oh dear me! yes,” sighed Meek, who, by one of his mock concurrences, effectually blinded the less astute portion of the audience from seeing Linton's impertinence.
“What has been doing here in my absence?” said Linton; “have you no event worth recording for me?”
“There is a story,” said Upton, “that Cashel and Kennyfeck have quarrelled,—a serious rupture, they say, and not to be repaired.”
“How did it originate? Something about the management of the property?”