The mother was a nice, gentle body, but this elder
daughter had most of the wits--though there's a boy in a Worcester
regiment they're all very fond and proud of--and she always looked
after the others, since the father--who was a Civil servant--died,
six years ago. Then two years since, she engaged herself to a young
Yeomanry officer--'
'Eh--what?--what do you say?--a Yeomanry officer?' said the Squire,
looking round.
'Precisely--a Yeomanry officer. They were engaged and apparently
very happy. He was a handsome, upstanding fellow, very popular with
women. Then he went out to Egypt with his regiment, and it was
intended they should marry when he got his first leave. But
presently his letters began to change. Then they only came at long
intervals. And at last they stopped. He had complained once of an
attack of sunstroke, and she was wretched, thinking he was ill. At
last a letter reached her from a brother officer, who seems to have
behaved very kindly--with the explanation. Her fiance had got into
the clutches--no one exactly knew how--of a Greek family living in
Alexandria, and had compromised himself so badly with one of the
daughters, that the father, a cunning old Greek merchant, had
compelled him to marry her.
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