'If I refuse to go?'
'Refuse, and compromise your honour and mine—yea, the honour of the Brigade itself! My dear Lewie, when you have lived in this world as long as I——'
'Why, uncle, you are only forty!'
'Not yet twice your age, certainly—well?'
'If detailed for the Colonies, anywhere, separation from Dolores will be the death of me!' exclaimed the young man passionately.
'No, it won't; nor of Dolores either. So you are very much in love with her?' asked the General with a scornful grin.
'God only knows how purely I love her!' exclaimed the nephew in a low concentrated voice.
'Nature is full of freaks, certainly!'
'How?'
'She has varied the annals of the old fighting line of the Baronalds of that Ilk, by having them varied by something else.'