open as other men keep theirs. Didn't a brace of
bounders of the worst discuss the story in all its bearin's, sittin'
behind my wife and Mrs. Saxham in the stalls at the theatre the other
night! Everybody _is_ discussin' it now that the Foltlebarres have left
off payin' Lessie not to talk, and provided for her and the youngster out
of the estate, and Whittinger's given her a back seat in the family....
That family, too!... Lord! what a rum thing Luck is!"

The musing Major cleared his throat, and his large, rather stupid, blonde
face was perfectly stolid as he smoked and stared at his host, reminding
himself that Beauvayse had been jealous of Saxham, Attached Medical Staff,
Gueldersdorp, and had feared that, if the fellow knew of the scratch
against him, he might force the running; and recalling, with a tingling of
the shamed blood in his expansive countenance, how he--Wrynche--had let
Beauvayse into the sordid secret that Alderman Brooker had blabbed. He
wondered, looking at the square, set face, whether Saxham had ever really
earned the degrading nickname that he could not get quite right. The 'Peg
Doctor,' was it?--or the 'Lush Doctor?' Something in that way.... Not that
Saxham looked like a man given to lifting his elbow with undue
frequency....

"--But you never know," thought experienced Bingo sagely, even as, in his
heavy fashion, he went pounding on: "The Chief's continuin' the Work of
Pacification, and acceptin' the surrender of arms--any date of manufacture
you like between the _chassepot_ of 1870 and the leather-breeched firelock
of Oliver Cromwell's time. The modern kind, you find by employin' the
Divinin' Rod"--the large narrator bestowed a wink on Saxham and added--"on
the backs of the fellows who buried the guns. Never fails--used in that
way. And--as it chances--I have a communication to make to you."

"A communication--a message--from the Chief to me?"

Saxham's face changed, and softened, and brightened curiously and
pleasantly.

Major Bingo nodded and cleared his throat. He rebalanced his shiny hat
upon the table corner, and said with his eyes engaged in this way:

"I was to remind you--from him--that--not long before the ending of the
Siege, a lady who is now a near connection of yours sustained a terrible
bereavement through the--infernally dastardly crime of a--person then
unknown!"

Saxham's vivid eyes leaped at the speaker's as if to drag out the
knowledge he withheld. But Bingo was balanc