Gilian The Dreamer

etter on His Majesty's Service for the Paymaster, to put on a bonnet, and in a mil

erous youths waiting the purchase of her superior "black man," a comfit more succulent with her than with Jenny Anderson in Cr

sufficiently close to State to be entrusted with the missive. "Goodday, Miss Campbell, I called to see Captain John on impor

this anxiety on the part of the post-office, and she would call the Paymaster from his breakfast. His part on the o

ose. "A king's letter. Confound the man! what can he be wanting now?" Then with a careless forefinger he would br

, sitting subdued behind her urn and Gilian at her side, and then at his brothers, hardly yet awake in th

th this way," said he, with a g

urned on him a

ed. With a hand a little palsied he buttered a scone, and his lower lip was dropped and his eyes were vacant

for him to the field officer was almost testiness. "Here's a command fo

yfulness. "Curse me! but it's true," he cried to the General. "The old 91st under Crawford-Jiggy Crawford we called him for his dance in the ken at Madrid before he exchanged-Friday, Friday; where's my uniform, Mary? They'll be raw recruits, I'll warrant, not the old stuf

stared with annoyance at the General. Dugald picked at his fish with no appetite, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, a silent old man palsied on one side

throat, and read the no

Friday?" asked Dugald

very F

light of the wan reluctant morning and the guttering candles on the table. To Miss Mary, looking at him there against the morning light, his figure-black and indefinite-was the figure that went to Spain, the strong figure, the straight

oat, a choking resistless cough of age and clogging humours. It was Time's mocking reminder that the morning parade was over for ever, and now the soldier must be at ease. He gasped and spluttered, his figure lost its tenseness, and from the fit of coughi

id the Paymaster, breaking the silence.

impatiently and loaded Gilian at h

t's a terribly stupid question to put, Jock. What-in-all-the-world-is-his-vexation? If you had the soger's heart and your brother's past you would not

from him, almost in

le of comprehending and he was, too, afraid. With a f

n. If I have not your honours from the Army, I'm as fond of Geordie's un

he veteran as if you were Moore himself, but you'll be far away from knowing what of their pomp and youth is stirring the hearts of your brother Dugald an

rful, in the shade beside Miss Mary's chair,

may give you thew and heart and a touch of the old Hielan' glory that this mechanic body by my side has got through the world wanting. Oh, laddie, laddie, what a chance is yours! To hear the drum in the morning and see the sun glint on the line; to sail away and march with pipe or bugle in foreign countries; to have a thousand good companions rou

d the Paymaster, not very audibly, so tha

sergeant bringing the question home to a lad at a country

ne," said Gilian stammering

rnal, subdued, and a hand

n his. "All the morning time, all with trumpets and the same friends about

English words to tell t

oked at him n

d! Young Jiggy that danced in the booze-house in Madrid! He was Ensign then and now he has his spurs and handles tartan. He is at the very topmost of the thing and I am going down, down, down, out, out, out, like this, and this, and this," and so saying he pinched out the candle fla