his outer garment inevitably suggested that he had borne an honourable
share in the recent campaign in a distant land. As I had frequently
met many of similar rank drinking tea at the house of the engaging
countess to whom I have alluded, I did not hesitate to prevail upon
this Captain Miggs to accompany me there upon an occasion also,
assuring him of equality and a sympathetic reception; but from the
moment of our arrival the attitudes of those around pointed to the
existence of some unpropitious barrier invisible to me, and when the
one with whom I was associated took up an unassailable position upon
the central table, and began to speak authoritatively upon the subject
of The Virtues, the unenviable condition of the proud and affluent,
and the myriads of fire-demons certainly laying in wait for those who
partook of spiced tea and rich foods in the afternoon, and did not
wear a uniform similar to his own, I began to recognise that the
selection had been inauspiciously arranged. Upon taxing some around
with the discrepancy (as there seemed to be no more dignified way of
evading the responsibility), they were unable to contend against me
that there were, indeed, two, if not more, distinct varieties of those
bearing the rank of captain, and that they themselves belonged to an
entirely different camp, wearing another dress, and possessing no
authority to display the symbol of the letters S.A. upon their necks.
With this admission I was content to leave the matter, in no way
accusing them of actual duplicity, yet so withdrawing that any of
unprejudiced standing could not fail to carry away the impression that
I had been the victim of an unworthy artifice, and had been lured into
their society by the pretext that they were other than what they
really were.

With the bitter-flavoured memory of this, and other in no way
dissimilar episodes, lingering in my throat, it need not be a matter