He had no—home!
'To what is all this the preface?' he asked.
'To nothing; it is only the expression of my own thoughts; but there is a notice in the War Office Gazette here—where the deuce—oh, here it is. I have heard you speak, more than once, quite incidentally, of the Cameronians.'
'Likely enough—I knew some of them—once.'
Cecil winced as he spoke, for Stanley was eyeing him keenly, and then said:
'Look here, old fellow, do you know anything of this—this name—Pelham and I have been puzzling our brains over the announcement.'
Cecil took the paper and gave a violent start, with a half suppressed exclamation, as he read:
'CAMERONIANS—The name of the officer, the proceedings of the court-martial on whom were cancelled, and who was re-gazetted to this regiment in last week's Gazette, is Captain Cecil Falconer Montgomerie—not Captain Cecil Falconer, as formerly.'
'Montgomerie—what can this mean!' said Cecil almost involuntarily, and feeling intensely perplexed. He was, beyond all description, startled too, while a great rush of joy and hope mingled in his heart, with the surprise that possessed him. The notice—the cancelled proceedings of the court-martial, and the name evidently referred to himself, but whence came this addition—the surname of Montgomerie?
Stanley was watching him silently. Was all this the clue to much apparent mental suffering, that Pelham and himself had suspected and seen? Was this the explanation of much in his manner that seemed reserved and curt, when 'the service' was spoken of, though they both suspected shrewdly that he had been in it—was 'an army man?'