Penfold said. "By the way,
Ralph, I have a piece of news for you. We stopped a couple of days,
you know, in town, and I saw my friend at the Horse Guards, and had a
chat about you. He seemed to think that you would be better if you
were a few months older; but as he acknowledged that many commissions
had been given to lads under sixteen, and as you had just arrived at
that age, and as I told him you have had no end of experience with
pirates and buccaneers, and all that sort of thing, he was silenced,
and your commission will appear in the next _Gazette_."
"Oh, Mr. Penfold!" Ralph exclaimed as he leaped from his seat in
delight. "I am obliged to you. That is glorious. I hardly even hoped I
could get a commission for some months to come. Don't look sad,
mother," he said, running round and kissing her. "I shan't be going
out of England yet, you know; and now the war is over you need have no
fear of my getting killed, and a few months sooner or later cannot
make much difference."
"I shall bear it in time, Ralph," his mother said, trying to smile
through her tears. "But it comes as a shock just at first."
The sight of his mother's tears sobered Ralph for a time, and during
supper the conversation was chiefly supported by Mr. Penfold, who
joked Ralph about his coming back in a few years a general without
arms or legs; and was, indeed, so cheerful and lively that Mabel could
scarcely believe her ears, so wholly unlike was he to the quiet friend
she had known as long as she could remember.
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