"Three blind mice--
See how they run."
--_Old Song_,

The Officers of the Purple Dragoons were gathered together in their
ante-room. It was a way they had. They were all there. Grand fellows,
too, most of them--tall, broad-shouldered, and silky-haired, and as
good as gold. That gets tiresome after a time, but everything can be
set right with one downright rascally villain--a villain, mind you,
that poor, weak women, know nothing about. GAVOR was that kind of man.
Of course that was why he was to break his neck, and get smashed up
generally. But I am anticipating, and a man should never anticipate.
EMILY, for instance, never did. EMILY--Captain EMILY, of the Purple
Dragoons--was the biggest fool in the Service. Everybody told him so;
and EMILY, who had a trustful, loving nature, always believed what he
was told.

[Illustration]

"I nev-ah twry," he used to say--it was a difficult word to pronounce,
but EMILY always stuck to it as only a soldier can. and got it out
somehow--"I nev-ah twry to wremember things the wwrong way wround."

A roar of laughter greeted this sally. They all knew he meant
"anticipate," but they all loved their EMILY far too well to set him
right.

"'Pon my soul," he continued, "it's quite twrue. You fellows may
wroawr wiv laughtewr if you like, but it's twrue, and you know it's