His stables were filled with a perfect infirmary of superannuated chargers, fattened and conditioned up to a miracle, and groomed to perfection.

He could get you--_only you_--about three dozen of sherry to take out with you as sea-store; he knew of such a servant; he chanced upon such a camp-furniture yesterday in his walks; in fact, why want for anything?
His resources were inexhaustible; his kindness unbounded.
Then money was no object,--hang it, you could pay when you liked; what signified it?
In other words, a bill at thirty-one days, cashed and discounted by a friend of the major's, would always do.

While such were the unlimited advantages his acquaintance conferred, the sphere of his benefits took another range.

The major had two daughters; Matilda and Fanny were as well known in the army as Lord Fitzroy Somerset, or Picton, from the Isle of Wight to Halifax, from Cape Coast to Chatham, from Belfast to the Bermudas.

Where was the subaltern who had not knelt at the shrine of one or the other, if not of both, and vowed eternal love until a change of quarters?
In plain words, the major's solicitude for the service was such, that, not content with providing the young officer with all the necessary outfit of his profession, he longed also to supply him with a comforter for his woes, a charmer for his solitary hours, in the person of one of his amiable daughters.