my candle burning in my small corner----"

"Good gracious," shrieked the kittenish mother. "A candle burning
to-night. And probably unshaded. Don't you know that those fiends in the
sky are always on the watch for the slightest illumination?"

"Fiends in the sky!" exclaimed the sheeted lady. "Do you mean to say
they are abroad even at this solemn moment?"

"Oh, don't talk such rot," implored the hard flapper. "Who the dickens
do you suppose was responsible for that crash?"

"Responsible for the crash!" said the other, whose tones were becoming
more and more alive with exclamation marks. "Is then the solemn work of
summoning us entrusted to the minions of the Evil One?"

A series of crashes interrupted her, the work of the adjacent gun. The
earth shook, and each report was followed by the curious ethereal wail
of shells on their way.

"What, again?" exclaimed Lady Arabel's sheeted neighbour. "I should have
thought one would have been ample. But still, one cannot be too careful,
and some people are heavy sleepers. I heard the first myself without any
possibility of mistake, and rose at once, though the slab lay heavy on
my chest----"

"Most unwise," said Lady Arabel, "to touch that sort of thing late at
night. I always have a little Benger myself."

Sarah Brown happened to look at Richard. His eyes were shut, but he was