"Get in, Tony, and come a mile or two with us. You know all the short cuts in the mountains, and can get back easily."
"There's the short cut I mean to take now," said Tony, sternly, as he pointed to a path that led down to the seashore. "I am going home."
"Yes, sir," resumed she, with a well-feigned air of severity; "but mine is a command."
"I have left the service,--I have taken my discharge," said he, with a forced laugh.
"At least, you ought to quit with honor,--not as a deserter," said she, softly but sadly.
"Perhaps he could not trust his resolution, if he were to see again the old flag he had served under," said Maitland.
"Who made you the exponent of what I felt, sir?" said he, savagely. "I don't remember that in our one single conversation we touched on these things."
"Tony!" cried Alice, in a low voice, full of deep feeling and sorrow,--"Tony!"
"Good-bye, Alice; I 'm sorry to have detained you, but I thought--I don't know what I thought. Remember me to Bella,--good-bye!" He turned away; then suddenly, as if remembering himself, wheeled round and said, "Good-morning, sir," with a short quick nod of his head. The moment after he had sprung over the low wall at the roadside, and was soon lost to view in the tall ferns.
"How changed he is! I declare I can scarcely recognize him," said Mrs. Trafford, as they resumed their journey. "He used to be the gentlest, easiest, and softest of all natures,--never put out, never crossed by anything."
"And so I 've no doubt you 'd have found him to-day if I had not been here."
"Surely you remarked the sudden change that came over his face when he saw me. He thought you were alone. At all events, he never speculated on finding me at your side."
"Indeed!" said she, with an air of half-offended pride; "and are you reputed to be such a very dangerous person that to drive out with you should inspire all this terror?"
"I don't believe I am," said Maitland, laughing; "but perhaps your rustic friend might be pardoned if he thought so."
"How very subtle that is! Even in your humility you contrive to shoot a bolt at poor Tony."
"And why poor? Is he poor who is so rich in defenders? Is it a sign of poverty when a man can afford to dispense with all the restraints that attach to others, and say and do what he likes, with the certainty that it will all be submitted to? I call that wealth unbounded,--at least, it is the one prize that money confers; and if one can have it without the dross, I 'd say, Give me the privilege and keep the title-deeds."