George Tomkyns Chesney

“ See what it is to have luck. I don't grudge Falkland his brevets, you know; he has deserved them if ever a man did: but if our regiment had gone to Cabul, and his had gone down to Dinapore, things might have been very different."
As Yorke looked at Falkland's spare figure and erect carriage, and then at Captain Buxey's portly frame almost filling up the buggy, as he sat with pursed-up lips, small round eyes, and splay feet encased in easy shoes, he could not help thinking that perchance something of the differences in their careers might be due to the individual as well as to luck ”

“ Why couldn't I talk like a man of the world, such as she must have been accustomed to meet with at home?"
Thus mused the young man, moodily gazing towards her, as she danced with one partner after another, watching her movements from a corner so fixedly that if the rest of the company had not been engaged in their own concerns, his pre-occupation would have been noticed. ”

“ They are all one regiment, you know, but officers are picked out to serve with the troops of horse-artillery, which is quite the crack branch of the service," he added; for our subaltern, although sensitive about the inferiority of his own position, had no small feeling of jealousy prompting him to disparage the others.
"And those in scarlet with embroidered coats?" continued the young lady. "Oh! those are the headquarter swells — I mean," he stammered, "the headquarter staff. Lucky fellows, they get tremendous salaries, march about all the cold season, and go up to the hills in the hot." ”

“ No, Miss Cunningham, I am afraid we subs have joined too late for any honour and glory. The only thing left for a fellow nowadays, if he cannot get into the irregular cavalry or the quartermaster-general's department, is civil employ, or even the public works; anything is better than regimental duty. ”

“ Yorke for want of military spirit, because he talked of leaving the army," said Miss Cunningham, archly, "and he cited you as a precedent; but you have not left the army, surely?"
"Our young friend's aspirations are very natural," said the colonel, smiling kindly; "we military civilians get all the loaves and fishes in peace-time, and then when campaigning is going on we fall back into our old places, and are very much in the way of our brother officers, I am afraid, who have been doing all the dull work in peace-time." ”

“ And as for being too ill to stay, I am sure when we were stationed at Dinapore, and the brigadier was only commanding his regiment, the civilians at Patna used to give most elegant entertainments, and many's the time I have stayed till I was ready to drop, waiting till the general's lady should go first, for I always respected other people's position; and although people say I look so strong, I can assure your Excellency I am often exceedingly delicate, especially being so subject to a rush of blood to the head. If others can put up with illness, so might some people, I think. ”

“ We lucky fellows come in for all the good things on both sides; but your turn will come too, I don't doubt. Every man gets his chance in India if he is only ready for it. But here is another lucky person, Olivia, for he is coming to claim you for a dance." Then, as an officer of the staff led Miss Cunningham away to a quadrille. Colonel Falkland fell to questioning our subaltern about himself — asked him if he had passed in the language, and whether there was the full number of absentee officers in his regiment, or if there were still room for one of those now with it to obtain an appointment. ”

“ Well, it is a fancy dress so far, that they wear pretty much what they fancy in the irregular cavalry; but that is their regular uniform, at least for a ball-room: they dress like the men on parade and without all that gold embroidery. ”

“ Yorke, though impatient to be there, came late, and the room was quite full when he arrived. In truth, a brilliant spectacle — nearly forty ladies, and perhaps a hundred and fifty gentlemen, almost all officers in uniform; so large an assembly had never before been witnessed in Mustaphabad. But for our subaltern there was only one lady in the room, sitting, as he entered, on an ottoman at the far end. ”

“ And your Excellency knows, — who better indeed? — that it is a rule for parties not to break up till the senior lady present takes her departure. It is really taking a great deal upon herself for a young girl like that to go off in that way from the very tent-door, in front of everybody, almost, as you may say, before supper is half over. ”

“ Falkland was worth a dozen men to the chief and Lord Hardinge on that day."
"It is strange that these men who promise so well cannot keep straight. There is Braddon, now, as fine a soldier in his line as Kirke, and he, too, must needs get into trouble, although in a different way."
"Yes, and his case will be more difficult to set right. When a man takes to shaking his elbow, there is seldom much chance of a cure. 'Tis a sad pity."
Kirke's appearance at the ball, which the two officers had been discussing, happened in this wise. ”