hint which she may give with regard to matters
connected with the establishment, leaving of
cards, reception of visitors, &c. &c., is to be
received as if it were an absolute order from the
commander-in-chief. Whenever Lady M. may
require the presence of an A. D. C., the latter
is to be in uniform."

Sir William elsewhere states that he
considers it part of the military duty of an aid-de-
camp to manage the household expenses of his
chief economically.

This irresistible digression disposed of, it
remains only to add, concerning the original story,
that Captain Jervis is acquitted, by the court,
of all dishonest intentions in connexion with
his commanding officer's salad-oil and
Worcestershire sauce, and that, upon the whole, this
officer comes out of the ordeal better than his
accusers. But what a case! What cases, in
short, are both these last which we have been
considering. English gentlemen taking part in
accusing their habitual associates of practices
of which one would hardly suspect a
costermonger's boy! English gentlemen plainly
supposing each other to be capable of entertaining
felonious intentions towards certain sixpenny
periodicals, or of attempting to get possession
of a few shilling jars of pickles by dishonest
means.

Now there are a great many partisans of our
existing army arrangements who would ask at
this point whether, if we were to examine the
lives of any set of men belonging to any
profession, we should not meet with as many
infringements of the laws which regulate good
manners as have been quoted here? Perhaps
we should, is our answer; but, then, let us
always remember that these other professions
do not take such high ground as this one of
arms. It is this that makes us so critical.
When we find one particular calling set aside
as especially the property—so to speak—of
gentlemen, we naturally watch the conduct of
the members of such calling a little jealously,
to see whether this proud boast of theirs is
well, or ill, grounded.

In this not too critical spirit, we cannot help
asking: Are the proceedings detailed in some
of those cases, which have been quoted above,
the proceedings of gentlemen? Are the men
whom you meet at an ordinary mess-table, now-
a-days, more invariably gentleman-like than
other men? Are there none among them whom
you feel instinctively to be what, for want of a
better name, must be called snobs—utter and
unmitigated? Is there any snob more
hopelessly and entirely snobbish than one who holds
a commission in the army? He may be an
exceptional character, but still he is there, and
your purchase system does not, nor ever can,
guarantee you against his intrusion.

And, indeed, how should it? Does the
possession, by the friends and relatives of—let us
say—Ensign Jones, of a sufficient sum of money
to buy him a step, when occasion offers, prove
—past the possibility of confutation—that
Jones is a gentleman? Taking this last much-
abused word in its lowest sense, as meaning a
person who has been accustomed from his
boyhood to mix with what are called the upper
classes of society, there is still no reason why
one ensign should, because his friends have got
some money, be able to come up to even this
unexalted standard. It may have been that
during all the early part of this youth's life,
that money, which turns out so useful now, was
as yet unacquired. The career to which the
father of the future ensign, was devoted, may
have been what "society" calls a "low" one;
and, during all the early years of our youngster's
life, the money, some of which was to buy his
commission, may have been only beginning to
accumulate, and so the future ensign may not
have had those advantages of education and
association with what the world calls good
society, which are essential to the formation
of the habits of a gentleman—always using the
word in this, its lowest and most generally
accepted sense.

A hundred other instances of a similar kind to
the instance which we have supposed will occur
to any one who chooses to turn his thoughts in
this particular direction—instances which show
to demonstration how very possible it is for a
clown to be possessed of money enough to buy
a commission in the army, and so to become an
officer without becoming a gentleman.

THE LATE MISS HOLLINGFORD.

CHAPTER VII.

SEVERAL weeks passed before I saw anything
more of Rachel Leonard than my passing
glimpse of her in the snow at sunrise. Mrs.
Hollingford, who never had been in any but
the poorest houses on the estate, walked
over with me, at Mrs. Hill's request, to pay a
morning visit at the hall. On that occasion no
Miss Leonard was to be seen. She must have
gone out walking—so said the maid who went
to seek her in her room; and we came back to
the farm without having seen her. Then
arrived Mrs. Hill to return the visit, but no Miss
Leonard accompanied her. Rachel was
confined to bed with a cold. The girls, who had
hoped for a sight of her, were disappointed.

And so the days went on, till it happened
that I went to stay at the hall. I had received
two or three invitations, and had always found
an excuse to stay away. At last it seemed
ungracious to stay away any longer, and I went.

How the hall was changed since the quiet time
of our " reading days," when the solitary wreath
of smoke went, up from Mrs. Beatty's chimney,
and the echo of one's step on the stone stair
rang round the gallery above! Now the hall,
that had used to look so wide and chilly, with
its grim ornaments of busts and authors, was
decorated with flowers from the hothouse, and
cheered by a blazing fire. A soft murmur of
prosperity was heard throughout the house, as
if luxury were gliding about in her velvet slippers,
giving orders in her modulated voice, and