"I am pleased, indeed, to be able to inform you that my urgent recommendation of you has received attention, and that you have been gazetted as lieutenant, dating from the day of our arrival at Chitral. I congratulate you most heartily."
"I am indeed most delighted, sir. I certainly owe my promotion entirely to your kindness."
"Certainly not, Lisle; you well deserve it. I am sorry to say that you will have to leave us; for you are gazetted to the 103rd Punjabi Regiment, who are stationed at Rawalpindi."
"I am sorry indeed to hear that, sir; though of course, I could hardly have expected to remain with you. I shall be awfully sorry to leave. You have all been so kind to me, and I have known you all so long. Still, it is splendid that I have got my commission. I might have waited three or four years, in England; and then been spun at the examination."
Lisle marched down with the regiment to Peshawar. Here he had his uniforms made, laid in a stock of requisites, and then, after a hearty farewell from his friends, proceeded to join his regiment, which was lying at Rawalpindi. He took with him Robah, whom the major relinquished in his favour.
On his arrival at the station, he at once reported himself to the colonel.
"Ah! I saw your name in the gazette, a short time since. You must have lost no time in coming out from England."
"I was in India when I was gazetted, sir."
"Well, I am glad that you have joined so speedily; for I am short of officers, at present. There is a spare tent, which my orderly will show you. We shall have tiffin in half an hour, when I can introduce you to the other officers."
When Lisle entered the mess tent, he was introduced to the other officers, one of whom asked him when he had arrived from England.