in a day or two," he observed.

use to you?"

"Can I be of any

"Why, thank you," returned Peregrine, “I think you could, if you would kindly tell me what I ought to do."

"You have only to report yourself," said Mr. Clay, "and then you can get leave 'till muster." "When is that?" asked Peregrine Pultuney.

Mr. Clay smiled and said, "You will soon know that but too well by experience. Muster-day is on the first day of the month, on which, as the name tells you, the regiment is mustered."

"Oh! that's it—very good," returned Peregrine. "I have reported myself already."

"To whom?" asked Mr. Clay.

"To the town-major," replied Peregrine.

"Oh! but you must report yourself to the commandant of the regiment, and from him you must get leave."

"Thank you," returned Peregrine, "I willand on what day would it be better to go?"

"All days are the same for that," said Mr. Clay, "but Wednesday is the best for seeing the officers of the regiment, as it is public night at the mess, and of course there is a strong assemblage. If you will come down in the morning I will take you to the brigadier's and introduce you at the mess afterwards."

"Thank you," replied Peregrine, " you are

very kind. Pray, how goes promotion in the regi

ment?"

"At tortoise pace," returned Mr. Clay-" the slowest of the most slow-I hope you have a good stock of patience to carry you on for years." "Pretty good," returned Peregrine.

Pretty good will not do," rejoined the artil lery officer; "you must have a patience that will support you for ten years, without a prospect of advancement in the world-a sanguine temperament that will enable you to hope on utterly against hope-a flow of spirits, which the constant recollection of your stagnant life avails not to quencha fortitude, a power of self-denial, that will keep you, in spite of your poverty, free from the heaviest of human curses-debt. If you have all these things in the highest-in an almost demi-god-like perfection, you are fit to be an artillery officer; but if not, you had better have hanged yourself than entered our honourable corps."

Though Mr. Clay said all this jestingly, in a manner that was evidently intended to convey to his hearer that he was not in earnest, Peregrine thought that he could detect a bitterness of tone in his voice, which told that the words he was uttering were not wholly destitute of truth-his earnestness not altogether an assumption of a light, jesting spirit of irony. There was more reality in his manner than he intended to betray, and Peregrine Pultuney, who was an acute observer, did not suf

fer the manifestation to escape him. He pretended, however, to receive it as a jest, and said laughingly, "Well; you do not describe my prospects as very cheering."

"It would be folly in me to attempt to do so," said Mr. Clay, "for your eyes would be soon opened, and you would see the deceit that had been practised upon you-the first army list you open will show you a string of six-and-thirty supernumerary second-lieutenants-on a moderate calculation it will take four years to absorb this fearful list of unfortunates-and six more before you get your promotion. Can your patience hold out for that!"

"Oh! yes," said Peregrine "I dare say it will; for although our promotion is so much slower than in the line, our pay you know is so much better."

"Nay," returned the artillery officer, smiling at Peregrine's ignorance, "you were never more mistaken in your life. When you get to Dum-Dum, you will find yourself drawing considerably less pay than your contemporaries in the infantry at Barrackpore."

"You cannot mean that," exclaimed Peregrine, "for if we get less pay and slower promotion, what on earth are the advantages of the artillery, for which we work like galley-slaves at Addiscombe?"

"I really cannot tell you," said Mr. Clay; " as I was never astute enough to discover them."

"Come," returned Peregrine "I think you must

be hoaxing me, or, like the Irishman, I have gained a loss."

"That's precisely it" rejoined Mr. Clay, "you have been hoaxed, not by me, but by the Company, and have gained a loss' beyond a shadow of doubt."

"Well," said Peregrine, "then all I have got to say is that I have been most atrociously duped; for we certainly are taught at Addiscombe, that an artillery appointment is a monstrous fine thing to obtain-they are held out as rewards for industry and attainments, and when we arrive here we find that they are punishments. That's justice certainly, Mr. Clay, but what can one expect from a company, who put their alumni into old clothes, which ought to be sent to Monmouth-street; and expect them to behave like officers, when they are being treated like a parcel of children."

66

Nay, now you are a little too severe," said the lieutenant; "the case is not quite so bad as that, for there is no punishment in being an artillery officer, though I must confess that what the nature of the reward is, I have never been able to discover."

"Why," rejoined Peregrine, "you have shown me two very palpable disadvantages in it-slow promotion and bad pay, but have shown me nothing to counterbalance these evils."

"Nor have I anything, perhaps, to show that you will recognise as a counterbalancing good; the evils are positive, though I hope that one at least of them will soon be remedied. We have memorialized the

court for full tentage, which is drawn by the Barrackpore officers, and the injustice we are labouring under is so apparent, that I have little fear for the success of our memorial. Still the slowness of our promotion will remain like a millstone around our necks; and if you ask me what tangible advantages we enjoy as a set-off against this, I must answer 'positively nothing;' but still I doubt whether there is an artillery officer in the service, who would exchange into the infantry to purchase five years' promotion by the change."

"And, pray, how is that?" asked Peregrine"esprit de corps do you call it?"

"Why," returned Mr. Clay, "from the very nature of our appointments we are, as it were, a select body. Next to the Engineers, our regiment contains the flower'- the picked officers of the army. Our profession, too, being scientific, is more humanizing than one that is purely a profession of arms

-our duties, though more onerous, are for the most part more congenial to the minds of educated men, than the unmixed military duties on which infantry officers are engaged-our regiment is so extensive that we are not tied down to the constant society of the same handful of men-there is a oneness too"

"Mr. Clay, Mr. Clay," interrupted Mrs. Pog gleton, "you must not forget my album. I am determined to have something of yours in it. You young men are such deceivers-only think now, its six or seven months since you promised to do