152 AN ADVENTURE. 



lady, by liberally paying her demand for 

 all damages sustained.* 



But with all this, I sought and kept good 

 society. The family living almost en- 

 tirely in the country, I had many leisure 

 hours to dispose of; and preferring the 

 company of my elders and men of good 

 position in the town to those of my own 

 age, I was induced to make one to join 

 indeed to found a literary society, 



* On a recent excursion for the benefit of my health, I 

 by chance entered an inn in a market-town in Sussex. A 

 gentleman, with hoary locks like myself, sitting with a pint 

 of wine before him, attracted my attention. I felt con- 

 vinced I had seen him before, and, after strictly scrutinizing 

 his features, I recognized my old friend the sergeant-major, 

 although I had seen him but once in forty years. Address- 

 ing him rather abruptly, I said, " If ever I saw E. G. I see 

 him now!" He rose from his seat, and said, "You are 

 right, sir, but I have no recollection of you." I asked 

 him if he was not once a non-commissioned officer in the 

 Hants Yeomanry Cavalry. He said, certainly. I then re- 

 called this incident to his memory ; he instantly grasped 

 my hand, and, shaking his head at the same time, said, 

 " Now I know you, for none but T. C. would have led the 

 way ; and I never pass the house," he added, ' ' without a vivid 

 recollection of all the circumstances, and the danger we 

 were in, as well from the crazy state of the building as from 

 our wanton indiscretion." 



