This woman was of course
with the Colonel when Julia arrived, and the spice of the devil in her
daughter's composition was most carefully nourished and fed by her. If
Julia had been a flirt before, she was a downright jilt now; she set
the whole cantonment by the ears; she made wives jealous and husbands
miserable; she caused all those duels of which I have discoursed
already, and yet such was the fascination of THE WITCH that I still
thought her an angel. I made court to the nasty mother in order to be
near the daughter; and I listened untiringly to Jowler's interminable
dull stories, because I was occupied all the time in watching the
graceful movements of Miss Julia.
But the trumpet of war was soon ringing in our ears; and on the
battle-field Gahagan is a man! The Bundelcund Invincibles received
orders to march, and Jowler, Hector-like, donned his helmet and prepared
to part from his Andromache. And now arose his perplexity: what must be
done with his daughter, his Julia? He knew his wife's peculiarities of
living, and did not much care to trust his daughter to her keeping; but
in vain he tried to find her an asylum among the respectable ladies of
his regiment. Lady Gutch offered to receive her, but would have nothing
to do with Mrs. Jowler; the surgeon's wife, Mrs.
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