the Major had said
this to her:

"It's all right about that boy in the guard-room, the prisoner you know,
who was to have been court-martialled. Some blatant idiot of an orderly
sergeant mixed up two sets of papers, and put the wrong man under
arrest. They're sending over the right man now. I told Sergeant O'Rorke
to bring that poor boy straight here from the guard-room. Keep a bit of
cake for him."

It was while the men were cheering the Major's other speech that Tommy
Collins, guided by Sergeant O'Rorke, entered the canteen.

Miss Nelly saw him at once. She stretched herself across the counter to
grasp his hands, upsetting the few remaining mince pies, and scattering
crackers right and left. If the counter had not been so broad and high
she would in all probability have kissed him.

"Oh, Tommy!" she said. "And I'd given up all hope of seeing you. This is
just a perfect Christmas box. How did you get here?"

Tommy Collins looked appealingly to Miss Willmot. His eyes begged her
as plainly as if words had crossed his lips not to tell the story of his
arrest.

"Now you are here," said Miss Nelly, "you must help us with the carols.
The Major's a perfect darling, but he can't sing bass for nuts. You'll
do it, won't you? I'm singing, and so is Miss Willmot."

V ~~ HER RIGHT

Mrs. Jocelyn was generally considered a clever woman. Her husband
respected her intellect. He was, and still is, Professor of Psychology
in one of our younger Universities, so he could give an expert's opinion
on any question of mental capacity. Her sons said she was clever. There
were two young Jocelyns, Ned, a barrister, and Tom, a junior master in a
public school. Ned used to give me his opinion of his mother very often.

"The mater is extraordinarily clear-headed," he would say. "If you want
to see your way through a muddle, just you talk it over with her. It's
an awful pity she----"

Then Ned would shrug his shoulders. He was a loyal son, and he never
said in plain words what the pity was. Tom spoke in the same way.

"Dad's all right," he used to say, "European reputation and all that;
but the mater has the brains of our family. If only she wouldn't----"

I agreed with both of them. Mrs. Jocelyn was one of the cleverest women
I ever met, but--well, on one subject she was an intolerable bore. That
subject was Woman's Suffrage. She could not keep off it for very
long, and once she started there was no stopping her. All her fri