evasive or awkward replies, and
saw that the inquiry was at the least an unpleasant theme among his
comrades.

Frank Dalton was well pleased at the opportunity now offered to know
something more of this young soldier, almost the only one under his
command who could speak any other language than Hungarian. Ravitzky,
however, although perfectly respectful in his manner, was cold and
reserved, showing no desire for an intimacy at which he might be
supposed to have felt proud. Without actually repelling, he seemed
determined to avoid nearer acquaintanceship, and appeared always happier
when he "fell back," to exchange a few guttural words with his comrades,
than when called to "the front," to converse with his officer.

Frank was piqued at all this; he saw that neither his rank, his supposed
wealth, nor his assumed position imposed upon the cadet; and yet these
were the very claims all his brother-officers had acknowledged. Amazed
at this wound to his self-love, he affected to forget him altogether,
or only remember him as one of the soldiers in his command. So far from
seeming displeased, Ravitzky appeared more at his ease than before, and
as if relieved from the worry of attentions that were distasteful to
him. This conduct completed the measure of Frank's indignation, and
he now began actually to hate the youth, on whom he practised all the
possible tyrannies of military discipline. These Ravitzky bore without
seeming to be aware of them, discharging every duty with an exactitude
that made punishment or even reproof impossible.

It is likely that if Frank had not been corrupted by all the adulation
he had so lately received,--if his self-esteem had not been stimulated
into an absurd and overweening vanity, he would have read this youth's
character aright, and have seen in him that very spirit of independence
which once he himself sought to display, albeit by a very different
road! Now, however, he received everything in a false light,--the
reserve was insolence, the coldness was disrespect, the punctuality in
duty a kind of defiance to him. How often he wished he had never taken
him! The very sight of him was now odious to his eyes.

Austrian troops enjoy so much of freedom on a march, that it is
difficult often for the most exacting martinet to seize opportunities
for the small tyrannies of discipline. Frank's ingenuity was now to be
tried in this way, and, it is but fair to confess, not unsuccessfully.
He compelled