but simply because he had always had a fancy for soldiering,
and because it seemed at the time he left Cheltenham the only thing open
to him.

He had resolved from the first that he would regularly put by a portion
of his pay, so that he could at any time purchase his discharge if he
wished to, should he see any opening in which he could embark by the
time he reached the age of three or four and twenty. He would have
gained experience, and might then, if he liked, emigrate to one of the
colonies. He resolved that when winter came he would go into one of the
regimental workshops and learn a trade, either saddlery or farriery,
which would enable him to earn his living for a time abroad until he saw
something better to do. At school Edgar had held his place rather by
steady work than by natural talent. Rupert was the more clever of the
two, but Edgar's dogged perseverance had placed him in a more advanced
position on the modern side than Rupert held on the classical, and in
whatever position he might find himself his perseverance, power of work,
and strong common sense were likely to carry him through.

Edgar was conscious himself that he had acted hastily and wrongly in
leaving Cheltenham as he had done, and yet he felt that if again placed
in the same circumstances he should do the same. Captain Clinton had
certainly a right to have a voice in his future, and yet he felt so
keenly the dishonour of the fraud in which he had been an unconscious
accomplice, that he could not have brought himself to accept any
assistance at Captain Clinton's hands. Still he knew that those at
home--for he still thought of it as home--would be feeling much anxiety
about him, and once a month he wrote a short letter to Captain Clinton
saying that he was well and was keeping himself comfortably. These
letters he gave in charge of comrades going up for a day's leave to
London to post there for him.

One day Edgar had gone with a dozen others to bathe in the canal. After
doing so they had returned to barracks, and he had gone for a walk by
himself. On his return he was walking along a lane at a distance of
about a mile from the town, when he heard a scream. He at once started
off at the top of his speed, and at a turn of the lane he came upon a
group of two tramps and two frightened ladies. One of these was in the
act of handing over her purse to a tramp, while the second man was
holding the other by the wrist, and was endeavouring to tear off