ficer."

"Great men are scarce. I'm content that my son has so far done his
duty quietly and well; all I could wish for is that if any exceptional
call should be made on him he should rise to the occasion. That is the
supreme test, and men one expects much from sometimes fail to meet it."

Millicent guessed that he was thinking of a man who had been dear to
him and had apparently broken down beneath sudden stress.

"It must be hard to judge them unless one knows all the circumstances,"
she remarked.

"Not when a man has entered his country's service. He must carry out
his orders; what he is sent to do must be done. No excuse can justify
disobedience and failure. But we are getting too serious and I am
boring you. There is another picture I think you would like to see."

Soon afterwards Mrs. Foster said that she must go, and when she and her
friends had left, Challoner sat alone for a time while the pictures
faded as dusk crept into the gallery. A man of practical abilities
with a stern perception of his duty, he was inclined to distrust all
that made its strongest appeal to the senses. Art and music he thought
were vocations for women; in his opinion it was hardly fitting that a
man should exploit his emotions by expressing them for public
exhibition. Indeed, he regarded sentimentality of any kind as a
failing, and it had been suggested that his son possessed the dangerous
gift. One of his guests had gone further and hinted that Bertram
should never have been a soldier. Challoner could not agree with this
conclusion, but he thought there was, perhaps, a grain of truth in it.
Then he banished his disturbing thoughts and went out in search of
Greythorpe.

During the next week Mrs. Chudleigh met Challoner twice and skilfully
led the conversation to his son. Then she heard from Sedgwick, who
said that if he could obtain the vacant appointment it would give him
an opportunity of making his mark. The time was ripe for a bold stroke
which would lead to the acquisition of valuable territory, but he could
not carry out his plans unless he had full command. They were, he
felt, bound to succeed, but he frankly owned that he meant to force the
hand of the Colonial authorities and could not act while he held a
subordinate position. Accordingly he begged Mrs. Chudleigh to exert
all her influence to secure his promotion, adding that his name had
been mentioned in connexion with the post, but that there were other