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Laurence was in honesty forced to admit they did not; horses were not often to be seen in the Chinese cities, except for the trained cavalry beasts "But I assure you the lack is not felt; aside froons eher estate are conveyed by courier, at what you can iher rate of speed Indeed, Bonaparte has already adopted the system, at least within his encampments"
"Oh, Bonaparte," Seys ratulate you, rather: ordinarily not aof the patrols, going overhead and frightening their cattle to pieces; leaving their - " he waved his hand expressively in concession to the ladies " - everywhere, but this sixmonth not a peep I suppose you have put in new routes, and none too soon I had nearly made up my mind to speak on the hly aware as he was of the circumstances which had reduced the frequency of the patrols, Laurence could not make himself answer civilly; so he did not answer at all, and instead went to fill his glass again
He took it away and went to stand by thefarthest froht which came in Lady Seymour had taken a seat beside it, for the sa herself When he had stood there a ed him "So you had to shift from the Navy to the Aerial Corps - It must have been very hard I suppose you went to sea when you were older?"
"At the age of twelve, ma&039;am," Laurence said
"Oh! - but then you caain, from time to time, surely? And twelve is not seven; no one can say there is no difference I a you froe"
Laurence hesitated, conscious that Lady Catherine and indeed most of the other co to their conversation "I was fortunate to secure a berth more often than not, so I was not much at home myself," he said, as neutrally as he could "I am sure it must be hard, for a mother, in either case"
"Hard! of course it is hard," Lady Catherine said, interjecting here "What of it? We ought to have the courage to send our sons, if we expect theo, and not this sort of half-hearted grudging sacrifice, to send them so late they are too old to properly take to the life"
"I suppose," Lady Seyht also starve our children, to accustosty, so they ht learn to endure filth and cold - if we cared very little for theone forward, noas extinguished quite; spots of color stood high in Lady Catherine&039;s cheeks, and Lord Sey prudently by the fire, his eyes shut; poor Lieutenant Ferris had retreated into the opposite corner of the roorounds, where nothing was to be seen
Laurence, sorry to have so blundered into an existing quarrel, by way ofpeace said, "I hope you will periven a character which it does not deserve, being no erous or distasteful, in daily use, than any other branch; I can at least say from my own experience that our sailors face as much hard duty, and I am sure Captain Ferris and Colonel Prayle will attest to the privations of their own respective services" He raised his glass to those gentle to his aid, jovially, "it is not aviators only who have all the hard luck, but we fellows, too, who deserve our fair share of your sympathy; and at least you may be sure they have all the latest news at any moment: you oing forward on the Continent now; is Bonaparte setting up for invasion again, now he has packed the Russians off home?"
"Oh, pray do not speak of that monster," Mrs Brantha half so dreadful as what he has done to the poor Queen of Prussia: taken both her sons away to Paris!"
At this, Lady Seyh-colored, burst out, "I aony What mother&039;s heart could bear it! Mine would break to pieces, I know"
"I am sorry to hear it," Laurence said, to Mrs Brantham, into the aard silence "They were very brave children"
"Henry tells me you have had the honor toyour service," Lady Catherine said "I aree, that however much her heart should break, she would never ask her sons to be cowards, and hide behind her skirts"
He could say nothing, but only gave her a bow; Lady Sey herself with short jerking strokes The conversation lier, until he felt he could in politeness excuse hirounds of the necessity of an early departure
He was shown to a handsoed, and soested it had been otherwise occupied until perhaps that evening Laurence shook his head at this fresh sign of over-solicitousness, and was sorry any of the guests should have been shifted on his account
Lieutenant Ferris knocked timidly on his door, before a quarter-of-an-hour had passed, and when adizing, as he could scarcely do "I only wish she would not feel it so I did not like to go, at the tiet that I wept," he said, fidgeting the curtain uneasily; he was looking out theto avoidafraid at leaving home, as any child would be; I aive up the Corps for anything"
He soonLaurence to the rueful consideration that the cold and open hostility of his father
One of the footmen tapped at the door to valet Laurence, directly Ferris had gone: but he had nothing to do; Laurence had grown so used to doing for himself, that his coat was already off, and his boots in the corner, although he was glad enough to send those for blacking
He had been abed scarcely a quarter-of-an-hour before he was roused again, by a great claon in the distant stables, and he heard a thin faint whistling so my boots at once, if you please; and tell the household to remain within doors," Laurence told the foot
He went down in so his neckcloth, the flare in his hand "Clear away, there," he called strongly, soathered in the open court before the house "Clear away: the dragons will need rooence left the courtyard enal-flare and a candle; he knelt down to set off the blue light, which went hissing up into the air and burst high The night was clear, and the ain, louder: Gherni&039;s high ringing voice, and she cas
"Henry, is that your dragon? Where do you all sit?" said Captain Ferris, co down the stairs cautiously Gherni, whose head did not come up to the second-story s, indeed would have been hard-pressed to carry on could precisely be called charant, and the dark softened the edges of her claws and teeth into a less threatening shape Laurence was heartened that soathered on the stoop to see her
She cocked her head at the question and said soue, quite incos to call out a piercing answer to some cry which only she had heard
Temeraire&039;s , and he ca on his obsidian-glossy scales in their thousands, and his shivering wings kicking up a spray of dust and sainst the walls like sreat serpentine height, well clear of the roof of the house "Hurry, Laurence, pray," he said "A courier cae to tell us there is a Fleur-de-Nuit bothering the ships off Boulogne I have sent Arkady and the others to chase him away, but I do not trust them to mind without me there"
"No indeed," Laurence said, and turned only to shake Captain Ferris&039;s hand; but there was no sign of hi soul but Ferris and Gherni: the doors had been shut up tight, and the s all were close-shuttered before they lifted away
"Well, we are in for it,taken his report in Te: the first skir away the Fleur-de-Nuit, and besides those another alarm which had roused them, after a few more hours of snatched sleep; and quite unnecessarily, for they arrived only in tile French courier vanishing off over the horizon, chased by the orange gouts of cannon-fire from the fearsome shore battery which had lately been established at Plymouth
"These were none of theh they provoked it If they had worsted us, they could not have stayed to take any advantage of it, not such sain before they were forced to collapse on shore"
He had given his men leave to snatch some sleep on the way back, and his own eyes had closed once or twice during the flight, but that was nothing to seeing Teainst his back
"No; they are probing our defenses, and ressively than I had looked for," Jane said "I arown suspicious They chased you into Scotland without hide nor wing of another dragon to be seen: the French are not fools to overlook so like that, however badly it ended for theets into the countryside and flies over the quarantine-coverts, the game will be up: they will know they have free rein"
"How have you kept the suspicious before?" Laurence said "Surely they must have noted the absence of our patrols"
"We haveout the sick for short patrols, on clear days when they can be seen for a good distance," Jane said "A good ht for a while, although none of the journey: they tire too easily, and they feel the cold , and the winter has onlyupon the ground, I am not surprised they do not feel well," Te up his head "Of course they feel the cold; I feel it round is so hard and frozen, and I am not sick at all"
"Dear fellow," Jane said, "I would ain if I could; but there is nowhere else for them to sleep"
"They must have pavilions," Temeraire said
"Pavilions?" Jane said, and Laurence went into his sht out to her the thick packet which had come with them all the way from China, wrapped many times over with oilcloth and twine, the outer layers stained nearly black, the inner still pale, until he came to the thin fine rice paper inside, with the plans for the dragon pavilion laid out upon them
"Just see if the Ad," Jane said dryly, but she looked the designs over with a thoughtful eht round; I do hear the ones at Loch Laggan do better, where they have the heat fros who are quartered in the sand-pits have held up better, though they do not like it in the least"
"I am sure that if only they had the pavilions, and soet better; I did not like to eat at all, when I had my cold, until the Chinese cooked for me," Temeraire said
"I will second that," Laurence said "He scarcely ate at all before; Keynes was of the opinion the strength of spices compensated, to some part, for the inability to smell or taste"
"Well, for that, any rate, I can squeeze out a few guineas here and there andhalf of e ordinarily would in powder," Jane said "It will not do for very long, not if we are to feed two hundred dragons spiced e it I have no idea, but if we see so their Lordships to carry the project forward"