"I've been on the point of asking so many times,"
Miss Madden interposed--"is Balder a family name,
or is it after the Viking in Matthew Arnold's poem?"

"It was his father's choice," Lady Plowden made answer.
"I think the Viking explanation is the right one--it
certainly isn't in either family. I can't say that it
attracted me much--at first, you know."

"Oh, but it fits him so splendidly," said Lady Cressage.
"He looks the part, as they say. I always thought it
was the best of all the soldier names--and you have only
to look at him to see that he was predestined for a soldier
from his cradle."

"I wish the Sandhurst people would have a good long
look at him, then," put in the mother with earnestness
underlying the jest of her tone. "The poor boy will
never pass those exams in the world. It IS ridiculous,
as his father always said. If there ever was a man who
was made for a soldier, it's Balder. He's a gentleman,
and he's connected by tradition with the Army, and he's
mad about everything military--and surely he's as clever
as anybody else at everything except that wretched matter
of books, and even there it's only a defect of memory--and
yet that suffices to prevent his serving his Queen.
And all over England there are young gentlemen like that--the
very pick of the hunting-fields, strong and brave as lions,
fit to lead men anywhere, the very men England wants