origin--a Brandenburg concerto by
Bach. More curious still, it was encored. Pierson did not applaud, he
was too far gone in pleasure, and sat with a rapt smile on his face,
oblivious of his surroundings. He remained thus removed from mortal joys
and sorrows till the last applause had died away, and Leila's voice said
in his ear:

"Isn't it a wonderful audience, Edward? Look at all that khaki. Who'd
have thought those young men cared for music--good music--German music,
too?"

Pierson looked down at the patient mass of standing figures in straw hats
and military caps, with faces turned all one way, and sighed.

"I wish I could get an audience like that in my church."

A smile crept out at the corner of Leila's lips. She was thinking: 'Ah!
Your Church is out of date, my dear, and so are you! Your Church, with
its smell of mould and incense, its stained-glass, and narrowed length
and droning organ. Poor Edward, so out of the world!' But she only
pressed his arm, and whispered:

"Look at Noel!"

The girl was talking to Jimmy Fort. Her cheeks were gushed, and she
looked prettier than Pierson had seen her look for a long time now, ever
since Kestrel, indeed. He heard Leila sigh.

"Does she get news of her boy? Do you remember that May Week, Edward?
We were very young then; even you were young. That was such a pretty
little letter you wrote me. I can see you still-wandering in your dress
clothes along the river, among the 'holy' cows."

But her eyes slid round again, watching her other neighbour and the girl.
A violinist had begun to play the Cesar Franck Sonata. It was Pierson's
favourite piece of music, bringing him, as it were, a view of heaven, of
devotional blue air where devout stars were shining in a sunlit noon,
above ecstatic trees and waters where ecstatic swans were swimming.

"Queer world, Mr. Pierson! Fancy those boys having to go back to barrack
life after listening to that! What's your feeling? Are we moving back
to the apes? Did we touch top note with that Sonata?"

Pierson turned and contemplated his questioner shrewdly.

"No, Captain Fort, I do not think we are moving back to the apes; if we
ever came from them. Those boys have the souls of heroes!"

"I know that, sir, perhaps better than you do."

"Ah! yes," said Pierson humbly, "I forgot, of course." But he still
looked at his neighbour doubtfully. This Captain Fort, who was a friend
of Leila's, and who had twice been to