“You are right, my dear fellow; excuse me,” replied Captain de Banyan, looking very much disappointed. “I dare say, if I should show him the autograph of the Emperor of France, he would be very glad to know me.”
“No doubt of it. At any rate, I recommend you to make the trial.”
“Yes; but the mischief of it is, I have left all those papers at home.”
“That’s unfortunate,” added Lieutenant Somers, who had some serious doubts in regard to the existence of those papers.
“So it is. If I had been lucky enough to have made the acquaintance of that young lady, as you have, I would not let my aspirations stop short of the stars of a major-general.”
“You need not as it is, if you do your duty.”
“Ah! my dear fellow, you are as sentimental as a girl of sixteen. I am a modest man; but, in my estimation, there are ten thousand men in the army as good as I am. They can’t all be major-generals, can they?”
“Certainly not.”
“Then, if you live a few months longer, you will find out how good a thing it is to have a friend at court. You are a modest young man; but I suppose you think there isn’t another man in the army who is quite your equal, and that your merit and your bravery will make a brigadier of you in less than a year. It’s a good thing to think so; but——”
“I don’t think so. That would be modesty with a vengeance.”