four years must pass before he could try to get service abroad. When
the time came he should find Sir John Parton, and beg him to procure
for him some letter of introduction to the many British gentlemen
serving abroad. He had not seen him since he came to England. His
father had met him, but had quarrelled with him upon Sir John
declining to interest himself actively to push his claims, and had
forbidden Cyril to go near those who had been so kind to him.

The boy had felt it greatly at first, but he came, after a time, to
see that it was best so. It seemed to him that he had fallen
altogether out of their station in life when the hope of his father's
recovering his estates vanished, and although he was sure of a kindly
reception from Lady Parton, he shrank from going there in his present
position. They had done so much for him already, that the thought
that his visit might seem to them a sort of petition for further
benefits was intolerable to him.

For the present, the question in his mind was whether he should
continue at his present work, which at any rate sufficed to keep him,
or should seek other employment. He would greatly have preferred some
life of action,--something that would fit him better to bear the
fatigues and hardships of war,--but he saw no prospect of obtaining
any such position.

"I should be a fool to throw up what I have," he said to himself at
last. "I will stick to it anyhow until some opportunity offers; but
the sooner I leave it the better. It was bad enough before; it will
be worse now. If I had but a friend or two it would not be so hard;
but to have no one to speak to, and no one to think about, when work
is done, will be lonely indeed."