added reproachfully, 'but ye didn't notice me at all.'

'I am very sorry for it,' she said; but, being afraid to shout in
such a company, the effect of her remark upon the corporal was as if
she had not spoken at all.

'You was coming along with yer head full of some high notions or
other no doubt,' continued the uncompromising corporal in the same
loud voice. 'Ah, 'tis the young bucks that get all the notice
nowadays, and old folks are quite forgot! I can mind well enough
how young Bob Loveday used to lie in wait for ye.'

Anne blushed deeply, and stopped his too excursive discourse by
hastily saying that she always respected old folks like him. The
corporal thought she inquired why he always kept his hat on, and
answered that it was because his head was injured at Valenciennes,
in July, Ninety-three. 'We were trying to bomb down the tower, and
a piece of the shell struck me. I was no more nor less than a dead
man for two days. If it hadn't a been for that and my smashed arm I
should have come home none the worse for my five-and-twenty years'
service.'

'You have got a silver plate let into yer head, haven't ye, corpel?'
said Anthony Cripplestraw, who had drawn near. 'I have heard that
the way they morticed yer skull was a beautiful piece of
workmanship. Perhaps the young woman would like to see the place?
'Tis a curious sight, Mis'ess Anne; you don't see such a wownd every
day.'

'No, thank you,' said Anne hurriedly, dreading, as did all the young