"You are leaving us, Major Vernon?" he said interrogatively as he signed
the paper.

"Yes, Jeffreys," answered Alan, then prompted by some impulse, added,
"Are you sorry?"

Mr. Jeffreys looked up and there were traces of unwonted emotion upon
his hard, regulated face.

"For myself, yes, Major--for you, on the whole, no."

"What do you mean, Jeffreys? I do not quite understand."

"I mean, Major, that I am sorry because you have never tried to shuffle
off any shady business on to my back and leave me to bear the brunt of
it; also because you have always treated me as a gentleman should, not
as a machine to be used until a better can be found, and kicked aside
when it goes out of order."

"It is very kind of you to say so, Jeffreys, but I can't remember having
done anything particular."

"No, Major, you can't remember what comes natural to you. But I and the
others remember, and that's why I am sorry. But for yourself I am glad,
since although Aylward and Haswell have put a big thing through and are
going to make a pot of money, this is no place for the likes of you,
and now that you are going I will make bold to tell you that I always
wondered what you were doing here. By and by, Major, the row will come,
as it has come more than once in the past, before your time."