“Well, we must think about it, Ralph, You know I consented greatly against my will to your choosing the army for your profession, and I am not going to draw back from that.  You are just sixteen now, and although that is rather young I believe that a good many lads do get their commissions somewhere about that age.  In one of his letters Mr. Penfold said that as soon as you came back he would take the matter in hand, and though I have good interest in other quarters and could probably manage it, Mr. Penfold has a great deal more than I have, and as he has expressed his willingness to arrange it I shall be grateful to him for doing so.”

“That will be first rate, mother,” Ralph said in delight.  “I thought in another year I might get my commission; but of course it would be ever so much better to get it a year earlier.”

For the next few days Ralph was a hero among his boy friends, and had to tell his story so often that at last he told his mother that if it wasn’t for leaving her so soon he should be quite ready to go off again for another visit to Mr. Penfold.

“You won’t be called upon to do that,” she said smiling; “for this letter that I have just opened is from him, and he tells me he is coming here at once to see you, for he thinks it would be too hard to ask me to spare you again so soon.”

“You don’t mean to say that he is coming all that way?” Ralph said in surprise.  “Well, I am very glad.”

“He asks me in his letter,” Mrs. Conway said with a passing smile of amusement, “if I can take in a young friend of his, Miss Mabel Withers.  He says she has never been from home before, and that it would be a treat for her to get away and see a little of the world.  He is going to stop a few days in London, and show her the sights on his way back.”

“That will be very jolly, mother.  You know I told you what a nice sort of girl she was, and how well we got on together.  I don’t know how I should have got through my visit there if it hadn’t been for her.  Her father and mother were very kind too, and I was often over at their house.”

Mr. Penfold had not succeeded in inducing Mr. and Mrs. Withers to allow Mabel to accompany him without much argument.  “You know what I have set my mind on, Mrs. Withers,” he said.  “But of course such an idea doesn’t enter the young people’s heads, it would be very undesirable that it should do.  But now Ralph has returned he will be wanting to get his commission at once, and then he may be away on foreign service for years, and I do think it would be a good thing for the young people to see as much of each other as possible before he goes.  If anything happens to me before he comes back, and you know how probable it is that this will be the case, they would meet almost as strangers, and I do want to see my pet scheme at least on the way to be carried out before I go.  It would be a treat for Mabel, and I am sure that Mrs. Conway will look after her well.”