ose were the
only material changes, except that sentries will for the future wear
fly- and fever-belts outside instead of in."

"So that he can see at a glance," Lady Hannah said approvingly, "that all
precautions are being taken. Very sensible, I call it."

"Ha, ha, haw!" Bingo's joyous explosion revealed to the outraged woman the
fact that she had been "had." "Haw, haw! What a beggar you are to rot,
Beauvayse! and that makes five to us."

Lady Hannah, vibrating with womanly indignation, had made her long-delayed
stroke, missed the pyramid ball, and sent Pink spinning into the pocket.
She threw aside her cue and rubbed her fingers angrily. She hated losing,
and they were playing for shilling lives and half-a-crown on the game.

"You--schoolboys!" She threw them a glance of disdain, as Beauvayse, his
seraphic face agrin, screwed in his supererogatory eyeglass, and lounged
over the table. "You artless babes! Did you suppose I should be likely to
swallow such a _feuille de chou_ without even oil and vinegar? For pity's
sake, leave off winking, Bingo! It's a habit that dates back to the era
when women wore ringlets and white book-muslin, and men sported shaggy
white beaver hats and pegtop trousers, and all the world read the novels
of Lever and Dickens."

"Have Lever and Boz gone out?" asked Beauvayse, pocketing his pyramid
ball. "I play at Blue." He hit Blue scientifically off the cushion and
went on. "Read 'em myself over and over again, and find 'em give points in
the way of amusement to the piffle Mudie sends out. Not that I pretend to
be a judge of literature. Only know when I'm not bored, you know. You to
play, Lord Henry."

But the senior officer of the Staff, Lady Hannah's partner, had vanished.
Somebody passing the open window of the billiard-room had whistled a bar
or so of a particularly pleasant little tune. Another man took Lord
Henry's place, and the game went on, but never finished, for one by one,
after the same quiet, unobtrusive fashion, the male players melted
away.... Left alone, Lady Hannah, feeling uncommonly like the idle boy in
the nursery-story who asked the beasts and birds and insects to play with
him, betook herself to bed.

The arrogance of men! she thought as she hung her transformation Pompadour
coiffure on the looking-glass. How cool, how unshaken in their conviction
of superiority, in spite of all deference, courtesy, pretence of
consideration for Queen Dolt.... But she would show th