Richard Darrell was not a vain or conceited lad, but the time had
arrived when he could not help feeling like a young peacock. He had
gone on for a long time in his ordinary dowdy plumage, till one fine
spring day the dull feathers began to drop out, and there was a flash
here and a gleam there--a bit of blue, a bit of gold, a bit of purple
and violet, and golden green and ruddy bronze--and he was strutting
along in the sunshine in the full panoply of his gorgeous feathers, from
the tuft on his head to the grand argus-eyed train which slants from the
back, and is carried so gingerly that the tips may not be sullied by the
dirt; all which makes him feel that he is a bird right glorious to
behold.
And the day had come when, in the secrecy of his own room, Dick was
about to moult from the simple uniform of the foot and preparatory days
into the splendid full dress of the Bengal Horse Artillery, a commission
in which was a distinction, a feather in any young soldier's cap.
Call it vanity what you will; but it was a glorious sensation, that
which came over Dick, and he would have been a strangely unnatural lad
if he had not felt excited.
No wonder that he shut himself up for the first full enjoyment of the
sensation alone, though perhaps there was a feeling of dread that he
might be laughed at by any one who saw him for the first time, since he
was painfully conscious of being very young and slight and smooth-faced,
although there was a suggestion of something coming up on the narrow
space just beneath his nose.
Those things did not come from the military tailor's in common
brown-paper parcels, but in special japanned tin cases, with his name in
white letters and "R.H.A."
How everything smelt of newness! The boxes even had their odour. It
was not a scent, nor was it unpleasant--it was, as the classic term
goes, _sui generis_; and what a rustle there was in the silver
tissue-paper which wrapped the garments!
But he did not turn to them first, for his natural instinct led him to
open the long case containing his new sabre, which was taken out,
glittering in its polish, and glorious with the golden knot so neatly
arranged about the hilt.
It felt heavy--too heavy, for it was a full-grown sabre; and when he
drew it glistening from its sheath, he felt that there was not muscle
enough in his arm for its proper management.
"But that will come," he said to himself as he drew it slowly till the
point was nearly bare, and then slowly thrust it back, when, pulling
himself together, he flashed it out with a rasping sound, to hold it up
to attention.
Yes, it was heavy and long, but not too long for a mounted man, and the
hilt well balanced its length. Nothing could have been better, and,
after restoring it to its scabbard, he attached it to the slings of the
handsome belt and laid it aside upon the bed.
The cartouche-box and cross-belt followed, and were examined with the
most intense interest. He had seen them before as worn by officers, but
this one looked brighter, newer, and more beautiful, for it was his very
own, and it went slowly and reluctantly to take its place beside the
sword upon the bed. For there was the sabretache to examine and admire,
with its ornate embossings and glittering embroidery.
"Pity it all costs so much," said Dick to himself as he thought of his
father, the quiet doctor, at home; "but then one won't want anything of
this kind new again for years to come, and aunt has paid for this."
But soon he forgot all about the cost; there was no room in his mind for
such a thing, with all that military panoply before his eyes. He had to
buckle on the belt, too, and walk to and fro with the sabretache
flapping against his leg, while he felt strange and awkward; but that
was of no consequence, for a side-peep in the looking-glass showed that
it appeared magnificent.
He was about to unbuckle the belt and take it off, but hesitated,
feeling that it would not be in his way. But the boy was strong-minded;
he had made up his mind to try everything separately, and he determined
to keep to his plan. So the belt was taken off, sabretache and all, and
the case opened to draw out _that_ jacket.
Yes, that jacket with its gorgeous cross-braiding of gold forming quite
a cuirass over the padded breast, and running in cords and lines and
scrolls over the seams at the back and about the collar and cuffs. It
was heavy, and was certain to be very hot to wear, especially in the
tremendous heat of India and the violent effort of riding at a furious
gallop. But what of that? Who would mind heat in a uniform so
brilliant?
The jacket was laid down with a sigh of satisfaction, and the breeches
taken up.
There is not much to be admired in a pair of breeches, be they ever so
well cut; but still they were satisfactory, for, in their perfect
whiteness, they threw up the beauty of the jacket and made a most
effective contrast with the high, black jack-boots--the uniform of the
Bengal Horse Artillery-man of those days being a compromise between that
of our own corps and a Life Guardsman.
The temptation was strong to try the white garments, and then draw on
the high, black boots in their pristine glossiness; but that was
deferred till a more convenient season, for there was the capital of the
human column to examine--that glistening, gorgeous helmet of gilded
metal, with its protecting Roman pattern comb, surmounted by a plume of
scarlet horsehair, to stream right back and wave and spread over the
burnished metal, to cool and shade from the torrid beams of the sun,
while the front bore its decoration of leopard-skin, emblematic of the
fierce swiftness of the animal's attack and the dash and power of the
Flying Artillery, that arm of the service which had done so much in the
subjugation of the warlike potentates of India and their savage armies.
It was almost idol-worship, and Dick's cheeks wore a heightened colour
as he examined his casque inside and out, gave it a wave in the air to
make the plume swish, tapped it with his knuckles, and held it at
arm's-length as proudly as any young knight of old donning his helmet
for the first time.
At last he put it on, adjusted the scaled chin-strap, gave his head a
shake to see if it fitted on tightly, and then turned to the glass and
wished, "Oh, if they could only see me now!"
But _they_ were far away in the little Devon town, where Dr Darrell
went quietly on with his daily tasks as a general practitioner, and Mrs
Darrell sighed as she performed her domestic duties and counted the days
that must elapse before the next mail came in, wondering whether it
would bring a letter from her boy in far-away Bengal, and feeling many a
motherly shiver of dread about fevers and cholera and wounds, and
accidents with horses, or cannons which might go off when her boy was in
front.
And the boy made all this fuss about a suit of clothes and the
accoutrements just brought to his quarters from the military tailor's.
Does any lad who reads this mentally exclaim, with an accompanying look
of contempt, "What a vain, weak, conceited ass Dick Darrell must have
been! Why, if under such circumstances I had received the uniform I
should have behaved very differently, and treated it all as a mere
matter of course."
At seventeen? Hum! ha! perhaps so. It would be rude for me, the
writer, to say, "I don't believe you, my lad," but one cannot help
thinking something of the kind, for we all have a touch of vanity in our
composition; and as for the uniform of the Bengal Horse Artillery, there
was not a man who did not wear it with a feeling of pride.
Dick fell proud enough as he gazed in the glass to see a good-looking,
sun-browned face surmounted by that magnificent helmet; but the lad's
head was screwed on the right way, and he was not one of those who were
turned out when fools were being made. For, as he gazed at himself and
admired his noble helmet and plume, his proud delight was dashed with
disappointment.
"I've got such a little face," he said to himself, "and it's so smooth
and boyish. I seem so young and thin. I wish I hadn't tried so hard to
get appointed to the horse brigade. I shall look ridiculous beside all
those great, finely-built men. I wonder whether they'll laugh. Well,
it's too late now. I wish I could go back home for two years to do
nothing but grow."
Dick had gone through everything, even to the gloves, and was having a
fight with the desire to try everything on at once, when there was a
sharp rap at his door, the handle was turned, and a manly voice shouted:
"May I come in?"