The General proceeded. ``As to this young
man---this friend of yours---this Richard Middlemas---
did you not call him so?''
``Not that I recollect,'' answered Hartley; ``but
your Excellency has hit upon his name.''
``That is odd enough---Certainly you said something
about Middlemas?'' replied General Witherington.
``I mentioned the name of the town,'' said
Hartley.
``Ay, and I caught it up as the name of the
recruit---I was indeed occupied at the moment by
my anxiety about my wife. But this Middlemas,
since such is his name, is a wild young fellow, I
suppose?''
``I should do him wrong to say so, your Excellency.
He may have had his follies like other
young men; but his conduct has, so far as. I know,
been respectable; but, considering we lived in the
same house, we were not very intimate.''
``That is bad---I should have liked him---that
is---it would have been happy for him to have had
a friend like you. But I suppose you studied too
hard for him. He would be a soldier, ha?---Is he
good-looking?''
``Remarkably so,'' replied Hartley; ``and has a
very prepossessing manner.''
``Is his complexion dark or fair?'' asked the
General.
``Rather uncommonly dark,'' said Hartley,---
darker, if I may use the freedom, than your Excellency's.
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