And thus are we stricken by the days of our youth.

It is impossible to moralize conveniently when one is being hurried by a person at one's elbow.
So the young man heard his mother out and kissed her, and then he went secretly to Vienna and enlisted and served for a year as a private in the regiment of Hussars, called, my papers tell me, Liechtenstein, and what with his good conduct and the help of Kirby's friends, he would have obtained a commission from the emperor, when, at the right moment to keep a sprig of Kirby's growth for his country, Lord Levellier sent word that he was down for a cornetcy in a British regiment of dragoons.
Chillon came home from a garrison town, and there was a consultation about his future career.

Shall it be England?
Shall it be Austria?
Countess Fanny's voice was for England, and she carried the vote, knowing though she did that it signified separation, and it might be alienation--where her son would chance to hear things he could not refute.

She believed that her son by such a man as Kirby would be of use to his country, and her voice, against herself, was for England.
It broke her heart.

If she failed to receive the regular letter, she pined and was disconsolate.