Presently she added, "Do you desire to win distinction? Do you wish to please me?"
"I desire to please you more than any one on earth, Miss Rawcliffe," he rejoined, earnestly. "I will do whatever you ask me."
"Then join the prince. But no! I ought not to extort this pledge from you. Reflect! reflect!"
"No need of reflection. My decision is made. I will join the Manchester Regiment."
"Then I will place the sash on your shoulder, and gird on your sword," she said.
A fire seemed kindled in the young man's breast by these words. Casting an impassioned glance at the fair maiden, he prostrated himself at her feet, and taking her hand, which she did not withhold, pressed it to his lips.
"I devote myself to you," he said, in a fervent tone.
"And to the good cause?" she cried.
"To the good cause," he rejoined. "But chiefly to you."
Before he could rise from his kneeling posture, Monica and Jemmy Dawson, who had come forth from the house, approached the arbour, but seeing how matters stood, they would have retired; but Constance, who did not exhibit the slightest embarrassment, advanced to meet them.