."

She jumped in terror.

"Oh!... Can it be?... Colonel, I do so beg you to forgive me! Let me
assure you that neither the Mayor nor myself will ever again repeat the
story."

"Ma'am, if you do ..."

"But I promise, never ..."

"Ma'am, if you never do, at least remember that the flute was an ocarina."

He left the good soul in an ecstasy of giggles, and crossed to Lady
Hannah. She welcomed him with a glitter of eyes and teeth and discovered
the reserve-chair that had been covered by her somewhat fatigued and
wilted draperies of maize Liberty-silk, veiled with black Maltese lace.

"What it is to be a man of tact! You've made that purple creature
perfectly happy. Don't say you're going to be less kind to another woman!"

She tapped with a reproachful fan the scarlet sleeve of his thin serge
mess-jacket, her appraising eye busy with the badges worn on the dark
green roll-collar and the miniature medals and star. If a clever woman
could be the confidante of a Cabinet Minister, the post of right-hand to
the Officer Commanding H.M. Forces in Gueldersdorp might be won. And then
the world would know what Hannah Wrynche was born for. What was he saying?

"I never warn my victims beforehand."

"Sphinx! and I hoped to find you in the relenting mood!"

"If possible, ma'am, my granite bosom is more unyielding than on the last
occasion when ..."

"Do go on!" said the fan.

"When you tried to tap it."

"You're all alike." She sighed. "That is, you give the keynote, and the
others take up the tune. Even Bingo--Bingo, whom I firmly believed
incapable of keeping a secret in which his dearest interests were
concerned longer than ten minutes--Bingo has sprung a surprise on me. I
shall end by falling in love with my own husband--such an indecent thing
to do after seven years of married life!"

"Fortunately, the scene of your lapse from the crooked path of custom is
distant from the West End of London nearly seven thousand miles. And you
can rely upon me for secrecy."

"Ah, that!... If only you _did_ leak a little information now and then."
Her eyebrows went up to the dry fringe of her Pompadour transformation.
"For the sake of the thirsting public at home, to say nothing of my
reputation as a Special Correspondent----"

"Drive over and call on General Brounckers at Head Laager, Geitfontein, on
the Border, early to-morrow. Perhaps he would oblige you with matter for a
paragraph, and forward the cable by private wire?"