in the army, but in his own regiment, one day or other. At this, there was
a certain amount of mirth, and various protestations of an unwillingness
to enlist; in which, I was glad to see, that neither Anneke, nor her most
intimate friend, Mary Wallace, saw fit to join, I liked their reserve of
manner, far better than the girlish trifling of their companions; and, I
could see, that all the men respected them the more for it. There was a
good deal of general and disjointed conversation that succeeded; which
I shall not pretend to follow or relate, but confine myself to such
observations as had a bearing on matters that were connected with myself.

As none of the young soldiers were addressed by their military titles, such
things never occurring in the better circles, as I now discovered, and,
least of all, in those connected with the army, I was not able, at the
time, to ascertain the rank of the three red-coats; though I afterwards
ascertained, that the youngest was an ensign, of the name of Harris; a
mere boy, and the younger son of a member of Parliament. The next oldest,
Billings, was a captain, and was said to be a natural son of a nobleman;
while Bulstrode was actually the oldest son of a baronet, of three or four
thousand a year, and had already bought his way up as high as a Majority,
though only four-and-twenty. This last was a handsome fellow, too; nor had
I been an hour in his company, before I saw, plainly enough, that he was
a strong admirer of Anneke Mordaunt. The other two evidently admired
themselves too much, to have any very lively feelings on the subject of
other persons. As for Dirck, younger than myself, and diffident, as well as
slow by nature, he kept himself altogether in the back-ground, conversing,
most of the time, with Herman Mordaunt, on the subject of farming.

We had been together an hour, and I had acquired sufficient ease to change
my seat, and to look at a picture or two, which adorned the walls, and
which were said to be originals, from the Old World; for, to own the truth,