It is impossible for me to tell you what has so suddenly changed my fortunes; it is sufficient that for the future I shall be, if I live, what you were--a private soldier in an army that needs a sword.

But let my fate be what it will, I go to it alone.

Spare me more speech, and simply obey my last command." Quiet as the words were, there was a resolve in them not to be disputed; an authority not to be rebelled against.

Rake stared, and looked at him blankly; in this man who spoke to him with so subdued but so irresistible a power of command, he could scarcely recognize the gay, indolent, indulgent, pococurante Guardsman, whose most serious anxiety had been the set of a lace tie, the fashion of his hunting dress, or the choice of the gold arabesques for his smoking-slippers.
Rake was silent a moment; then his hand touched his cap again.
"Very well, sir," and without opposition or entreaty, he turned to resaddle the mare.
Our natures are oddly inconsistent.

Cecil would not have taken the man in to exile, and danger, and temptation, and away from comfort and an honest life, for any consideration; yet it gave him something of a pang that Rake was so soon dissuaded from following him, and so easily convinced of the folly of his fidelity.