Well, I'm going to ask you something. But I may say I'm rather
nervous. You'll promise not to set Bogie at me or strangle me with
your Sam Browne?"

"I will."

"Well, then, have you been asking Betty Willoughby to marry you, and
has she said 'Yes'?"

I was amazed. Was Woggles also among the soothsayers? Because a few
evenings earlier, with the help of a splendid full moon and one or two
extenuating circumstances--

"But this is black magic and wizardry," I said. "It's a dead secret.
How on earth did you know?"

"Oh, I just guessed," said Woggles.

* * * * *

THE MATRIMONIAL MARKET.

"Young Girl Wanted, for Wife of Naval Officer."--_Provincial
Paper_.

The Navy may be the Silent Service, but when it does speak it is very
direct.

* * * * *

[Illustration: THE EASTER OFFERING.

MR. LLOYD GEORGE _(fresh from Paris)._ "I DON'T SAY IT'S A PERFECT
EGG; BUT PARTS OF IT, AS THE SAYING IS, ARE EXCELLENT."]

* * * * *

[Illustration: _Colonel (back with his battalion from front lines--to
horsey and immaculate Railway Transport, Officer)._ "ENGINES A BIT
FRISKY THIS MORNING?"]

* * * * *

PROPAGANDA IN THE BALKANS.

At the end of September last those whom we in Macedonia had come
to regard as our deadly enemies became our would-be friends with a
suddenness which was almost painful. Kultur is a leavening influence,
and our spurious local Hun in Bulgaria is every bit as frightful in
war and as oily in defeat as the genuine article on the Rhine.

To escape this unfamiliar and rather overpowering atmosphere of
friendliness our section of the Salonica Force immediately made for
the nearest available enemy and found ourselves at a lonely spot on
the Turkish frontier. The name of the O.C. Local Bulgars began with
Boris, and he was a _Candidat Offizier_ or Cadet, and acting Town
Major. As an earnest of good-will, he showed us photos of his home,
before and after the most recent _pogrom_, and of his grandfather, a
bandit with a flourishing practice in the Philippopolis district, much
respected locally.

We took up our dispositions, and shortly all officers were engaged
sorting out the suspicious characters arrested by the sentries. It was
in this way that I became acquainted with Serge Gotastitch the Serb.

When he was brought before me I sent for Aristides Papazaphiropoulos,
our i