The Soldier's Wife — page 58: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE SOLDIER’ WIFE, ‘ 45 fortnnate recruits. He never once reproached|Langley, you shall know what it tastea Ake tne drill-sergeant for want of tact on his own|before you are much older.” | part, or for having recommended the squad as] The sergeant then stalked away: and the competent to pass for arms: but all the objur-|unfortunate young soldier felt so truly miser- gations and vituperations, intermingled with|able, that if it had not been for the image of no small quantity of oaths, were levelled at|Lucy, it is even to be feared that he would the recruits themselves—so that some of them|have been tempted to put an end to his sor- were actually bullied into the commission of|/rows by some desperate means. the very faults for which they were blamed. The squad was pronounced unfit for arms; and this was to a certain extent a degradation—at all events, a deep humiliation—because if the recruits had been reviewed by one exercising a dispassionate calmness, they would have ac- quitted themselvesin quite a different manner. |IT was about a fortnight after the visit of Ge CHAPTER XIL THE PROGRESS OF THE BAILIFF 3 SCHEME, On the same afternoon on which the squad|jrald Redburn to Davis’s cottage, that the - had been thus turned back, Lonsdale was|young gentleman was one evening, soon after passing through the barrack-yard in a very;dusk, wending his way from the Manor House mournful mood,—when he encountered Ser- geant Langley. “Well, you fellow, what do you think of a soldier’s life now?” demanded this individual: aud there was a sardonic grin upon his coun- tenance. “Why don't you answer? Isuppose you wish you had never entered the ranks—but ou don’t like to sayso. Comespeak up, man: isn't that the case?” “Jt is,” replied Frederick, with more of bit- Lerness in his accents than he could control, “Ah! I always thought you were a discon- tented, refractory kind of a fellow. I hav’n't forgot what passed between you and me at Oakleigh—how you tried to shirk out of the business when once you had enlisted: but I wasn’t sucha fool as you thought. Ha! ha! Bates and I managed that affair nice enough. I saw the little notes you wrote to the surgeon and two or three of the tradesmen, begging and impl.ring them to lend you the smart- money for a few hours: but Bates wasn’t such a fool as to send them. A-good fellow was that Bates!—he helped to get me several re- cruits, and you amongst them. But I say, what’s become of that girl you were so fond of, and that came throwing her arms round your neck? She was a pretty piece of goods enough: but I dare say that by this time she has provided herself with another lover.” Lonsdale was moving on in mingled indig- nation and disgust, when Langley commanded him in an authoritative tone to stop—exclaim- ing with a terrible imprecation, “ What do you mean by walking away like this, when I con- descend to speak to you? You should take care how you behave to your betters, you in- fernal impudent scoundrel, you!” Frederick could not help flinging upon Lang- ley a look of the liveliest indignation: but he paid nothing. | “Now I just tell you what it is,” said the sergeant, with intense malignity in his accents a3 well as his eyes; “you are a sneaking hum- bug—a fellow that would do anything mean and shabby; and yet you pretend to have a fine spirit of ag own. I have got my eye upon you; and | shall take uncommon good eare to punish you for the first piece of impu- dence you show towards me. I don’t think you will know your place till you have had a taste of the cat; and as sure as my name is 4 ee a in the direction of that dwelling. He walked slowly—for he was engaged in thought; and it will perhaps be advisable to make the reader acquainted with his musings. ‘“T really don’t know what has come over me for the last fortnight; but I certainly think that I love that girl. Somehow or another I don’t feel towards her as I have towards other women. It’s altogether a different sensation. It isn’t exactly that I want to possess her for awhile and then throw her off: but it seemsas if | should like to have her always for myself —to make her mine entirely, with the certainty that no other person can take her away from me. She is assuredly the most beautiful crea- ture I ever beheld in my life; and every time I see her, she strikes me as being handsomer and handsomer. It requires to know that girl to discover how beautiful she is. And then, too, how I like that spirit on her part! She pretends to be so cold, and reserved, and dis- tant,—as if she wanted a great deal of wooing before she could be wom Davis assuras me it is mere coyness on her part. I wonder whe- ther he suspects that I am smitten with her? I don’t think he does: for he always speaks to me of her with a sort of frieudly confidence, just as he might speak to a brother, or an uncle, or any near relation who he krows could not possibly have any matrimonial design in that quarter. Here have I been regularly every evening at the cottage during the last fort- night ; and the oftener I go the more I feel the necessity of going. Ah! Davis was quite right when he said that his daughter was not a girl who would listen to any dishonorable propo- sal. I think I have got impudence enough for almost anything: but I could no more make such a proposal to that girl than I could to a duke’s daughter. ‘There is something about her that overawes one; and now I begin te understand what is meant by the natural dig- nity of a virtuous woman. I always thought until recently that it was something only, to be found in romances, or else in the highest class of society: but Lucy Davis has taught me quite different. She is indeed a superb creature!” Here Gerald Redburn stopped short as he approached the cottage; and he seemed to be struck with a sudden hesitation whether to proceed. Gomicboo S (©)