the
platform. He had made up his mind to have some private conversation
with the sergeant as to the possibility of entering her Majesty's
service as a private soldier, and was on the point of accompanying his
military travelling companions into the comparative quiet of the street
when a porter touched his cap--

"Any luggage, sir?"

"Luggage?--a--no--no luggage!"

It was the first moment since leaving home that the thought of luggage
had entered into his brain! That thought naturally aroused other
thoughts, such as lodgings, food, friends, funds, and the like. On
turning to the spot where his military companions had stood, he
discovered that they were gone. Running to the nearest door-way he
found it to be the wrong one, and before he found the right one and
reached the street the two soldiers had vanished from the scene.

"You seem to be a stranger here, sir. Can I direct you?" said an
insinuating voice at his elbow.

The speaker was an elderly man of shabby-genteel appearance and polite
address. Miles did not quite like the look of him. In the
circumstances, however, and with a strangely desolate feeling of
loneliness creeping over him, he did not see his way to reject a civil
offer.

"Thank you. I am indeed a stranger, and happen to have neither friend
nor acquaintance in the town, so if you can put me in the way of finding
a respectable lodging--a--a _cheap_ one, you will greatly oblige me."

"With pleasure," said the man, "if you will accompany--"

"Stay, don't trouble yourself to show me the way," interrupted Miles;
"just name a house and the street, that will--"

"No trouble at all, sir," said the man. "I happen to be going in the
direction of the docks, and know of excellent as well as cheap lodgings
there."

Making no further objection, Miles followed his new friend into the
street. For some time, the crowd being considerable and noisy, they
walked in silence.

At the time we write of, Portsmouth was ringing with martial music and
preparations for war.

At all times the red-coats and the blue-jackets are prominent in the
streets of that seaport; for almost the whole of our army passes through
it at one period or another, either in going to or returning from
"foreign parts." But at this time there was the additional bustle
resulting from the Egyptian war. Exceptional activity prevailed in its
yards, and hurry in its streets. Recruits, recently enlisted, flocked
into it from all quar