And, my dear Miss St.
Just, we are going to the Crimea." "We ?--you ?" "Yes.

The expedition will really sail, I find." "But not you ?" "I shall offer my services.

My leave of absence will, in any case, end on the first of September; and even if it did not, my health is quite enough restored to enable me to walk up to a cannon's mouth." "Ah, mon Saint Pere, what words are these ?" "The words of an old soldier, Queen Whims, who has been so long at his trade that he has got to take a strange pleasure in it." "In killing ?" "No; only in the chance of----.

But I will not cast an unnecessary shadow over your bright soul.

There will be shadows enough over it soon, without my help." "What do you mean ?" "That you, and thousands more as delicate, if not as fair as you, will see, ere long, what the realities of human life are; and in a way of which you have never dreamed." And he murmured, half to himself, the words of the prophet,--"'Thou saidst, I shall sit as a lady for ever: but these two things shall come upon thee in one day, widowhood and the loss of children.