of people who had heard each other's stories for the hundredth time, who knew every crook and twinge in each other's back and limbs, who had quarrelled and made up, and quarrelled again, and who were so set in their ways that many a subject was outlawed and strangled by common consent at the first utterance. Yet kindly gentlemen withal, attached to each other by the common bond of poverty and suffering, their fortunes wrecked, and they left stranded together on the barren coast of life. Ethel could not bear to think of her dear uncle, in such a place, but the Colonel himself saw only the cheerful sides. "I have found a home, Arthur,' he said to Pendennis. 'Don't you remember, before I went to India, when we came to see the old Grey Friars, and visited Captain Scarsdale in his room?-a Poor Brother like me—an old Peninsular man. Scarsdale is gone now, sir, and is where "the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest"; and I thought then, when we saw him — here would be a place for an old fellow when his career was over, to hang his sword up; to humble his soul, and to wait thankfully for the end, Arthur. My good friend, Lord H., who is a Cistercian like ourselves, and has just been appointed a governor, gave me his first nomination. Don't be agitated, Arthur, my boy, I am very happy. I have good quarters, good food, good light, and fire, and good friends; blessed be God! And if I wear a black gown, is not that uniform as good as another? and if we have to go to church every day, at which some of the Poor Brothers grumble, I think an old fellow can't do better."" Three or four of them, when my work was finished and 1 Evins had carried my traps to the taxi, shook hands with me in parting, and one old fellow walked with me as far as the gate, his long black Pensioner's cloak flapping about his unsteady legs; and yet he bore himself erect, and, as I noticed later on, with a certain distinction that indescribable quality in a man which only comes with good birth, good breeding, and the consciousness of having done something worth while. When he had lifted his hat, and had begun to retrace his steps, I found myself standing where he had left me, my eyes following his every movement, until he disappeared in an angle of the court. "Yes, sir," said the porter, in answer to my inquiring glance, "I don't wonder you want to know you ain't the first has asked me. If you'd been sharp you might have got a look at the Victoria Cross he wears on his breast underneath his gown. There ain't many like him." "Well, why is he here?" I asked. "Well, sir, they do say he was too honest to stay out." |