"Has he been long in your regiment, Mark?" asked Mrs. Trafford.
"Maitland has never served with us; he joined us in Simla as a member of our mess, and we call him 'of ours' because he never would dine with the 9th or the 50th. Maitland would n't take the command of a division to have the bore and worry of soldiering,--and why should he?"
It was not without astonishment Mark's sisters saw their brother, usually cold and apathetic in his tone, so warmly enthusiastic about his friend Maitland, of whom he continued to talk with rapture, recalling innumerable traits of character and temper, but which unhappily only testified to the success with which he had practised towards the world an amount of impertinence and presumption that seemed scarcely credible.
"If he only be like your portrait, I call him downright detestable," said Mrs. Trafford.
"Yes, but you are dying to see him all the same, and so is Bella."
"Let me answer for myself, Mark," said Isabella, "and assure you that, so far from curiosity, I feel an actual repugnance to the thought of meeting him. I don't really know whether the condescending politeness of such a man, or his cool impertinence, is the greater insult."
"Poor Maitland, how will you encounter what is prepared for you?" said be, mockingly; "but courage, girls, I think he 'll survive it,--only I beg no unnecessary cruelty,--no harshness beyond what his own transgressions may call down upon him; and don't condemn him merely, and for no other reason, than because he is the friend of your brother." And with this speech he turned short round and ascended a steep path at his side, and was lost to their view in a minute.
"Isn't he changed, Alice? Did you ever see any one so altered?"
"Not a bit changed, Bella; he is exactly what he was at the grammar-school, at Harrow, and at Sandhurst,--very intolerant to the whole world, as a compensation for the tyranny some one, boy or man as it may be, exercises over him. All his good qualities lie under this veil, and so it was ever with him."
"And I wish that he had not sent away _ours_, for I 'm sure Tony would have been up here before this if something unusual had not occurred."
"Here's a strange piece of news for you, girls," said Sir Arthur, coming towards them. "Tony Butler left for Liverpool in the packet this morning. Barnes, who was seeing his brother off, saw him mount the side of the steamer with his portmanteau in his hand. Is it not singular he should have said nothing about this last night?"