One
promise he exacted from Middlemas, as a condition of the services which
he was to render him--It was absolute silence on the subject of his
destination for India, and the views upon which it took place. "My
recruits," said the Captain, "have been all marched off for the depot at
the Isle of Wight; and I want to leave Scotland, and particularly this
little burgh, without being worried to death, of which I must despair,
should it come to be known that I can provide young griffins, as we call
them, with commissions. Gad, I should carry off all the first-born of
Middlemas as cadets, and none are so scrupulous as I am about making
promises. I am as trusty as a Trojan for that; and you know I cannot do
that for every one which I would for an old friend like Dick Middlemas."
Dick promised secrecy, and it was agreed that the two friends should not
even leave the burgh in company, but that the Captain should set off
first, and his recruit should join him at Edinburgh, where his
enlistment might be attested; and then they were to travel together to
town, and arrange matters for their Indian voyage.
Notwithstanding the definitive arrangement which was thus made for his
departure, Middlemas thought from time to time with anxiety and regret
about quitting Menie Gray, after the engagement which had passed between
them. The resolution was taken, however; the blow was necessarily to be
struck; and her ungrateful lover, long since determined against the life
of domestic happiness, which he might have enjoyed had his views been
better regulated, was now occupied with the means, not indeed of
breaking off with her entirely, but of postponing all thoughts of their
union until the success of his expedition to India.
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