Trudaine. Hardly worth while," he added,
twirling the letter in his hand, "to put it
into the bag, is it?"

Lomaque looked over his shoulder as he
spoke, and saw that the letter was directed
to the President of the Academy of Sciences,
Paris.

"I wonder whether he accepts the place or
refuses it?" thought the land-steward,
nodding to the postman, and continuing on
his way back to the house.

At the door, he met Trudaine, who said to
him rather hastily, "You are going back to
Lyons with Madame Danville, I suppose?"

"This very day," answered Lomaque.

"If you should hear of a convenient
bachelor-lodging at Lyons, or near it,"
continued the other, dropping his voice
and speaking more rapidly than before,
"You would be doing me a favour if you
would let me know about it."

Lomaque assented; but before he could
add a question which was on the tip of his
tongue, Trudaine had vanished in the interior
of the house.

"A bachelor-lodging!" repeated the land-
steward, standing alone on the door-step.
"At or near Lyons! Aha! Monsieur
Trudaine, I put your bachelor-lodging and your
talk to me last night together, and I make
put a sum total which is, I think, pretty near
the mark. You have refused that Paris
appointment, my friend; and I fancy I can
guess why."

He paused thoughtfully, and shook his
head with ominous frowns and biting of his
lips.

"All clear enough in that sky," he
continued, after a while, looking up at the
lustrous mid-day heaven. "All clear enough
there; but I think I see a little cloud rising
in a certain household firmament already— a
little cloud which hides much, and which I,
for one, shall watch carefully."

THE CAMEL-TROOP CONTINGENT.

I AM on two years' leave from the Mahratta
Fencibles, and have been appointed, after
assiduous application, to the Native Abyssinian
Camel-troop Contingent for service in
the East. It is true, I can't speak Abyssinian,
but I know Welch and a little Latin;
and I am told the roots of these three tongues
are very similar.

There is no doubt about my official appointment
whatsoever. I hold it in my hand.
"Sir,— I am directed to inform you, in answer
to your late application, that you have been
appointed to the N. A. C. Contingent, and
are requested to embark with the utmost
practicable dispatch. (Signed) REDTAPE."

I read this continually, in order to re-assure
myself of the fact of my appointment, because
every other circumstance goes directly against
it. "Utmost practicable dispatch!" I took
leave of my thirteen brothers and sisters,
scarcely allowing a quarter of a second to
each embrace; was whirled by the express
train to town; and rushed to the War Office.

Says my friend at Court, then: "See his
lordship? Quite impossible, Snooks! One
hundred and forty people in the ante-room;
and besides that (in confidence), he escaped
by the back door at lunch time, and has not
come back since."

I waited, nevertheless, for I too had some
sat-upon sandwiches still left, that I had
brought with me in the train from Aberdeen,
and some sherry in a pocket-pistol; and "time
and the hour" brought me to the minister.

He was not in a pleasant frame of mind.
"This is not the place, sir, for your confounded
Abyssinian Troop business. Go to—"

I shall not refer more particularly to the
office he thus suggested, than to observe, that
whatever intelligence I might have wanted, I
should not have voluntarily made personal
application to the head of that department; so
I walked across the way, instead, to another
bureau. In answer to most anxious inquiries,
I was there informed that "there had been,
and even still was, some talk of an Abyss—"

"Talk, sir," I interrupted; "look here!"
and I produced my appointment, signed and
sealed, triumphantly.

"Yaas," observed the smooth official.
"Yaas; we have sent a great many of these
out lately. Thirty-six appointments have
been signed, I think, from first to last; but
only three are to hold good."

I was in a white heat, but quite calm;
when, in answer to my question of where I
was to go for information, he replied, "To
the War Office."

"His lordship has already directed me
here," I answered; for I began to fancy the
places synonymous.

"Then, your commanding officer or his
secretary might know, perhaps," said he.

I thought that it was just possible they
might; so I tried the secretary. Who should
I find closeted with him, but my old friend,
Banberry, colonel of the Cingalese Dragoons,
the first cavalry officer in India, appointed to
my very own brigade, and just the man to tell
me all I wanted. After "Snooks, my boy!"
and the slaps on the back were over, I told
him I had but twenty-four hours, or so, to
spend in England, and had to get all my outfit.

"Indeed!" said he. "And where are you
going in such a hurry? What's your corps?
What's your uniform?"

"Good Heavens!" said I; "I go with
you, in your corps, in your uniform. I want
to know all about it."

"Well, I confess I should like to know a
little about it myself," said the colonel, who is
celebrated for his imperturbability.

Well, I went from him to the man who is
to command us— the general himself: a
gentlemanly person enough, just the man for
our Camel-troop, no doubt; only,