"Good Lord! I'm a minute late. He's outside. I loathe unpunctuality. So
long, Tony."

She waved a careless farewell and strode out.

In the evening she gave Sir Julius to understand that, for aught she cared,
he could go into a corner and play Bridge by himself, thus holding herself
free, as it appeared to my amused fancy, for any pleasanter eventuality. In
a few moments Colonel Lackaday was sitting by her side. I drew a chair to
a bridge-table, and idly looked over my hostess's hand. Presently, being
dummy, she turned to me, with a little motion of her head towards the pair
and whispered:

"Those two--Auriol and ---- don't you think it's rather rapid?"

"My dear Selina," said I. "What would you have? '_C'est la guerre_.'"




Chapter III



It was rather rapid, this intimacy between the odd assorted pair--the
high-bred woman of fervid action and the mild and gawky Colonel born in a
travelling circus. Holding the key to his early life, and losing myself in
conjecture as to his subsequent career until he found himself possessed of
the qualities that make a successful soldier, I could not help noticing the