"Tell me first the news from London."
"Well, gudewife Winny, nobody speaks of anything but this expedition to Egypt, and the expected surrender of Malta. Then if all goes right, ere long General Abercrombie will have about 15,000 men with him in the Bay of Marmorice."
"I am so glad our Cosmo did not think of going on foreign service."
"Why?"
"Can you ask me, Reynold—our only son?"
"I had been ten times under fire before I was half his age. He was most anxious to go, and I wished him too; but, as the staff appointments were all filled up, and his battalion of the Guards will soon be detailed for service, I thought it a pity that the boy should lose his regimental rank."
"Cosmo will be twenty-five on his next birth-day," said Lady Rohallion, thoughtfully, a remark probably suggested by the term "boy;" "our only son, Rohallion; we must indeed be careful of him."
"Careful of a strapping Guardsman like Cosmo!"
"There are times—when—when——"
"What, Winny?"