reasonable to stay at home in your old clothes and play. But we
recognized that these folk had to do many unaccountable things,
and after all it was THEIR life, and not ours, and we were not
in a position to criticise. Besides, they had many habits
more objectionable than this one, which to us generally meant a
free and untrammelled afternoon, wherein to play the devil in our
own way. The case was different, however, when the press-gang
was abroad, when prayers and excuses were alike disregarded, and
we were forced into the service, like native levies impelled
toward the foe less by the inherent righteousness of the cause
than by the indisputable rifles of their white allies. This was
unpardonable and altogether detestable. Still, the thing
happened, now and again; and when it did, there was no arguing
about it. The order was for the front, and we just had to shut
up and march.

Selina, to be sure, had a sneaking fondness for dressing up and
paying calls, though she pretended to dislike it, just to keep on
the soft side of public opinion. So I thought it extremely
mean in her to have the earache on that particular afternoon when
Aunt Eliza ordered the pony-carriage and went on the war-path. I
was ordered also, in the same breath as the pony-carriage; and,
as we eventually trundled off, it seemed to me that the utter
waste of that afternoon, for which I had planned so much, could
never be made up nor atoned for in all the tremendous stretch of
years that still lay before me.

The house that we were bound for on this occasion was a "big
house;" a generic title applied by us to the class of residence
that had a long carriage-drive through rhododendrons; and a