“Yes; he had had an accident and gone home damaged—crippled, in fact.”
“Yes,” said Captain Forrester, with a groan, “crippled—and perhaps left without a friend.”
“You want me to promise to find him if you are not there to do it, and be a father to him. You needn’t ask it, old man, for I promise.”
“I’ve nothing to leave him,” said Captain Forrester, “except my sword and this watch—”
“And the good name of a gallant soldier. I will, if it is left to me to do it, take the boy all three.”
“Thanks, Atherton. You know that I would do the same by you, old fellow.”
“You may have the chance. That girl of mine, you know,” added the major, with a tremble in his voice, “would have what little I have saved, which is not much. She’s a good girl, but she would need a protector if I was not there.”
“She shall have it,” said his friend.
“I’m not sure that she’s happy at Wildtree,” continued the father, with a smile, “despite the dog and his master. Rimbolt’s a bookworm, and doesn’t see what goes on under his nose, and her aunt, as she says, is an animated extinguisher. It always puzzled me how Rimbolt came to marry Charlotte Halgrove.”
“Halgrove? Was she the sister of your old college friend?”