er already, and by
Tuesday I shall be as fit as a fiddle. I hope I do well, it would be so
jolly to cable out the news to the old pater; and I say, Peg, I don't
mean to leave Sandhurst without bringing home something to keep as a
souvenir. At the end of each Christmas term a sword is presented to the
cadet who passes out first in the final exam.--`The Anson Memorial
Sword.' Mariquita!"--Arthur smote his breast, and struck a fierce and
warlike attitude,--"that sword is mine! In the days to come, when you
are old and grey-headed, you will see that rusty blade hanging over my
ancestral hearth, and tell in faltering tones the story of the gallant
youth who wrested it from his opponents."

"Ha, ha!" responded Peggy deeply. There was no particular meaning in
the exclamation, but it seemed right and fitting in the connection, and
had a smack of melodrama which was quite to her taste. "Of course you
will be first, Arthur!" she added; "and, oh dear! how proud I shall be
when I see you in all your uniform! I am thankful all my men relatives
are soldiers, they are so much more interesting than civilians. It
would break my heart to think of you as a civilian! Of course wars are
somewhat disconcerting, but then one always hopes there won't be wars."

"I don't!" cried Arthur loudly. "No, no--active service for me, and
plenty of it!

"`Come one, come all, this rock shall fly
From its firm base as soon as I!'

"That's my motto, and my ambition is the Victoria Cross, and I'll get
that too before I'm done; you see if I don't! It's the ambition of my
life, Peg. I lie awake and think of that little iron cross; I go to
sleep and dream of it, and see the two words dancing before my eyes in
letters of fire, `For Valour,' `For Valour,' `For Valour.' Ah!"--he
drew a deep breath of excitement--"I don't think there is anything in
the world I should envy, if I could only gain that."

Peggy gazed at him with kindling eyes. "You are a soldier's son," she
said, "and the grandson of a soldier, and the great-grandson of a
soldier; it's in your blood; you can't help it--it's in my blood too,
Arthur! I give you my solemn word of honour that if the French or
Germans came over to invade this land, I'd--" Peggy seized the ruler and
waved it in the air with a gesture of fiercest determination--"I'd fight
them! There! I'd shoot at them; I'd go out and spike the guns; I'd--
I'd climb on the house-tops and throw stones at them. You ne