I have not asked
you for your secret; respect mine."
"But I have nothing to conceal," said McKay, quickly. "I am ready
enough to tell you why I enlisted."
"As you please; but, mind, I have not asked you."
There was little encouragement in this speech; but McKay ignored it,
and went on--
"I enlisted because I could not enter the army in any other way. My
friends could not afford to purchase me a commission."
"Why were you so wild to become a soldier?"
"It was my father's profession. He was a captain in--"
"That should have given you a claim for an ensigncy, as an officer's
son."
"But my father was not in the English service. He was only half an
Englishman, really."
"Indeed! How so?"
"Although Scotch by extraction, as our name will tell you, my father
was born in Poland. He was a Russian subject, and as such was
compelled to serve in the Russian army."
"For long?"
"Until he was mixed in an unfortunate national movement, and only
escaped execution by flight. He lived afterwards at Geneva. It was
there he met my mother."
"Is it through him or her that you are related to the Wilders?"
"Through my mother. She was daughter of the Honourable Anastasius, son
of the twelfth earl."
"And what might be the distinguishing numeral of the present Essendine
potentate?"
"He is fourteenth earl.
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