"In many respects this restoration of my inheritance changes my position altogether. As I told you the last time I was here, I shall stop until this terrible war is over. The king has been most kind and gracious to me, and to leave before the struggle is over I should feel to be an act of desertion. Once the sword is sheathed, I intend to return to Scotland; for I should not care to remain in the service, when there is nought but life in garrison to look forward to. Moreover, the strength of the army would, of course, be largely diminished, at once.
"What I should do afterwards, I know not. Perhaps I might obtain a commission in our own army, for there are always opportunities of seeing service in America, India, or elsewhere, under the British flag. More likely I shall, at any rate for a time, remain at home. My mother has no other child, and it is a lonely life, indeed, for her."
"Do you not think of settling here?"
"What is there for me to do, count, outside the army? I could not turn merchant, for I should assuredly be bankrupt, at the end of the first month; nor could I well turn cultivator, when I have no land to dig. Now, however, my future is determined for me; and a point that has, I own, troubled me much, has been decided without an effort on my part."
The conversation was continued for some little time, the count asking many questions about Fergus's ancestral home, the scenery, and mode of life. Fergus noticed that Thirza took no part in the conversation, but sat still; and looked, he thought, pale.
The days succeeded each other quietly and uneventfully, and Fergus gained strength rapidly; so that, in the middle of July, he began to feel that he was again fit for service. One evening he was sitting alone in the garden with the count, when the latter said to him:
"You remember our conversation on the first evening of our coming here, as to the impossibility of your doing anything, did you remain out here after leaving the army. There was one solution to which you did not allude. Many Scottish and Irish soldiers, both in this country, in France, Austria, and Germany, have married well. Why should you not do the same?"
Fergus was silent for a minute, and then he said:
"Yes, count; but they continued in the service, rose to the rank of generals and, as in the case of my cousin Keith, to that of marshal."
"But you might do the same, if you remained in the army," the count said. "You are assuredly, by far, the youngest colonel in it. You are a favourite of the king's, and might hope for anything."