'I was playing with it, and it went off by itself,' said Dick, when the
powder-pocked cheek could no longer be hidden, 'but if you think you're
going to lick me you're wrong. You are never going to touch me again.

Sit down and give me my tea. You can't cheat us out of that, anyhow.'

Mrs. Jennett gasped and became livid. Maisie said nothing, but
encouraged Dick with her eyes, and he behaved abominably all that
evening. Mrs. Jennett prophesied an immediate judgment of Providence and
a descent into Tophet later, but Dick walked in Paradise and would not
hear. Only when he was going to bed Mrs. Jennett recovered and asserted
herself. He had bidden Maisie good-night with down-dropped eyes and from
a distance.

'If you aren't a gentleman you might try to behave like one,' said Mrs.

Jennett, spitefully. 'You've been quarrelling with Maisie again.'

This meant that the usual good-night kiss had been omitted. Maisie,
white to the lips, thrust her cheek forward with a fine air of
indifference, and was duly pecked by Dick, who tramped out of the room
red as fire. That night he dreamed a wild dream. He had won all the
world and brought it to Maisie in a cartridge-box, but she turned it
over with her foot, and, instead of saying 'Thank you,' cried--
'Where is the grass collar you promised for Amomma? Oh, how selfish you
are!'?

CHAPTER II

Then we brought the lances down, then the bugles blew,