o. There was another ring-up
as she reached the door.

"Hallo. Are you the Convalescent Hospital?"

"Yes. Who are you?"

"Staff Bombproof South. I want to speak to Lady Hannah Wrynche."

"I'm here, Lord Beauvayse."

"I say, I'm going to rag you frightfully. Why on earth have you given us
away in that beastly paper?"

"Whom do you mean by 'us'?"

"Well, me and Miss Mildare."

"Didn't you tell me on Sunday that you were engaged?" she demanded
indignantly.

"I did." The answer came back haltingly.

"And that you didn't care who knew it?"

"Fact."

"And that you two were going to be married as soon as you could pull off
the event?"

"Yes." The voice was palpably embarrassed. "But----"

"Well?"

"But--things you don't mind people knowing look beastly in cold print."

"If I were in your shoes I should think they looked beautiful."

Nothing but a faint buzz came back. Lady Hannah went on:

"If I were in your shoes, and such a pearl and prize and paragon as
Lynette Mildare had consented to marry me, I should want the whole world
to envy me my colossal good luck. I should go about in sandwich-boards
advertising it. I should buy a megaphone, and proclaim it through that. I
should----"

There was no response beyond the buzzing of the wire. Beauvayse had
evidently hung up the receiver.

"Is there any creature upon earth more cowardly than a man engaged?" Lady
Hannah demanded of space. There was a futile struggle inside the
telephone-box. Somebody else was trying to ring up. She put the receiver
back upon the crutches, and--

"_Ting--ting--ting!_" said the bell in a high, thin voice.

"Who is it?" she asked.

The answer came back with official clearness:

"Officer of the day, Staff Headquarters. If you're the Convalescent
Hospital, the Colonel would like to speak to Lady Hannah Wrynche."

Her knees became as jelly, and her heart seemed to turn a somersault. She
answered in a would-be jaunty voice that wobbled horribly:

"Here--here--is Lady Hannah."

"Hold on a minute, please!"

She held on. She had not shuddered at the end of the wire for more than a
minute when the well-known, infinitely-dreaded voice said in her ear, so
clearly that she jumped:

"Lady Hannah there? How d'you do?"

She gulped, and quavered:

"It--it depends on what you're going to say."

"I see." There was the vibration of a stifled laugh, and her heart jumped
to meet it. "So you anticipated a hauling over the coals?"