able in the sitting-room. He materialised a cold turkey, a brown loaf,
and some tomatoes; and he even achieved table-napkins. Gerald and Donkin
on their part disappeared into the nether regions, and returned bearing
mince-pies and cider. Some one else found champagne and opened it; and
in a quarter of an hour we were left to ourselves by the benignant
waiter round a comfortably loaded table, in a snug room with the fire
burning and the curtains drawn.

It was an eccentric kind of meal, for every one was overflowing with a
sort of reactionary hilarity; and everybody called everybody else "old
man" or "my dear," and I was compelled to manipulate my food with my
left hand owing to the fact that my wife insisted on clinging tightly to
my right. The only times I got a really satisfactory mouthful were when
she slipped out of the room to see how her daughter was sleeping.

As the meal progressed, I began to note the exceedingly domestic and
intimate manner in which we were seated round the table, which was small
and circular. Kitty and I sat together; then, on our right, came Dicky
and Dilly, then Gerald and Donkin, each partially obscured from view by
a bottle of cider about the size of an Indian club; and Dolly and Robin
completed the circle.

The party comported themselves variously. Kitty and I said little. We
were utterly tired and dumbly thankful, and had no desire to contribute
greatly to the conversation; but we turned and looked at one another in
a contented sort of way at times. Dicky and Dilly were still
sufficiently newly married to be more or less independent of other
people's society, and they kept up a continuous undercurrent of
lover-like confidences and playful nothings all the time. Gerald, upon
whom solid food seemed to have the effect that undiluted alcohol has
upon ordinary folk, was stentoriously engaged with Mr Donkin in what a
student of _Paley's Evidences_ would have described as "A Contest of
Opposite Improbabilities" concerning his election experiences.

Lastly, I turned to Dolly and Robin. Dolly's splendid vitality has stood
her in good stead during the last twenty-four hours, and this, combined
with the present flood-tide of joyous relief, made it hard to believe
that she had spent a day and a night of labour and anxiety. She was much
more silent than usual, but her face was flushed and happy, and somehow
I was reminded of the time when I had watched her greeting the dawn on
the morning after D