lose a moment; and as I shall have to wait on
the duke to thank him for his great kindness to me, I have no time to
spare.'

This news so stunned me that for a moment or two I couldn't reply.
O'Grady perceived it, and, patting me gaily on the shoulder, said--

'Yes, Jack, I am sorry we are to separate. But as for me, no other
course was open; and as to you, with all your independence from fortune,
and with all your family influence to push your promotion, the time is
not very distant when you will begin to feel the life you are leading
vapid and tiresome. You will long for an excitement more vigorous and
more healthy in its character; and then, my boy, my dearest hope is that
we may be thrown once more together.'

Had my friend been able at the moment to have looked into the secret
recesses of my heart and read there my inmost thoughts, he could not
more perfectly have depicted my feelings, nor pictured the impressions
that, at the very moment he spoke, were agitating my mind. The time he
alluded to had indeed arrived. The hour had come when I wished to be a
soldier in more than the mere garb; but with that wish came linked
another even stronger still; and this was, that, before I went on
service, I should once more see Louisa Bellew, explain to her the nature
and extent of my attachment to her, and obtain, if possible, some pledge
on her part that, with the distinction I hoped to acquire, I should look
to the possession of her love as my reward and my recompense. Young as I
was, I felt ashamed at avowing to O'Grady the rapid progress of my
passion. I had not courage to confess upon what slight encouragement I
built my hopes, and at the same time was abashed at being compelled to
listen tamely to his prophecy, when the very thoughts that flashed
across me would have indicated my resolve.

While I thus maintained an awkward silence, he once more resumed--

'Meanwhile, Jack, you can serve me, and I shall make no apologies
for enlisting you. You've heard me speak of this great Loughrea
steeplechase: now, somehow or other, with my usual prudence, I have gone
on adding wager to wager, until at last I find myself with a book of
some eight hundred pounds--to lose which at a moment like this, I need
not say, would almost ruin all my plans. To be free of the transaction,
I this morning offered to pay half forfeit, and they refused me. Yes,
Hinton, they knew every man of them the position I stood in. They saw
that not only