“Yes, sir,” resumed she, with a well-feigned air of severity; “but mine is a command.”
“I have left the service,—I have taken my discharge,” said he, with a forced laugh.
“At least, you ought to quit with honor,—not as a deserter,” said she, softly but sadly.
“Perhaps he could not trust his resolution, if he were to see again the old flag he had served under,” said Maitland.
“Who made you the exponent of what I felt, sir?” said he, savagely. “I don't remember that in our one single conversation we touched on these things.”
“Tony!” cried Alice, in a low voice, full of deep feeling and sorrow,—“Tony!”
“Good-bye, Alice; I 'm sorry to have detained you, but I thought—I don't know what I thought. Remember me to Bella,—good-bye!” He turned away; then suddenly, as if remembering himself, wheeled round and said, “Good-morning, sir,” with a short quick nod of his head. The moment after he had sprung over the low wall at the roadside, and was soon lost to view in the tall ferns.
“How changed he is! I declare I can scarcely recognize him,” said Mrs. Trafford, as they resumed their journey. “He used to be the gentlest, easiest, and softest of all natures,—never put out, never crossed by anything.”
“And so I 've no doubt you 'd have found him to-day if I had not been here.”
“What do you mean?”