BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. CHAPTER I. THE BEAST. THE white glare of an Indian sun was beginning to beat on the parade-ground at Nhilpoor. The English regiment, which had been summoned for early drill, was detained to witness a painful piece of discipline, which the authorities trusted would prove a salutary warning. A young soldier named Thwaite, a fine, manly fellow in spite of his faults, had, in the course of several years' service, risen to the rank of sergeant. This desirable result was the effect of energy, daring, an obliging temper when he was not crossed, and a clever aptitude for a soldier's duties, born of motherwit, sharpened by a rather better education VOL. I. 1 than was usual in his grade. Unfortunately his merits were counterbalanced by defects, which not even the promotion he had attained, calculated as it was to open his eyes to the side on which his bread was buttered, had been able to check. He was as rash and reckless as he was dauntless and enduring. He had an uncertain temper, spoilt by what was understood to have been a hard youth. He was careless of the company he kept, and careless of the excesses into which he fell in bad company. He had an elder sister, married to a cousin of the same name in the troop, but in spite of her efforts, and notwithstanding the staid example of her husband, who was a pattern of prudence, though he had not the wit to rise. in the world, young Will Thwaite had been going from bad to worse lately, and had indulged in one fit of dissipation after another. They were beyond being hidden; they could not escape punishment; and both offence and punishment were totally incompatible with his position as a noncommissioned officer. His best friends had grown weary of pleading for grace, which was so often abused. A court-martial could only come to one conclusion, especially as the Colonel of the regiment |