y bally thing you tell me to now," he said quickly.

Dr. Gurnet laughed, then he said:

"Go back to England, study German, and await your chance. Don't play any
more heavy games, don't lose your temper or try your heart, don't drink
or smoke or play billiards or sit in a room with a shut window. Take
plenty of good plain food and a certain amount of exercise. You are
going to be needed."

Winn drew a deep breath.

"It's a funny thing," he said, turning toward the door, "but somehow I
believe in you."

Dr. Gurnet shook hands with him cordially.

"In a sense, I may say," he observed, "in spite of your extremely
disappointing behavior, that I return the compliment. I believe in you,
Major Staines, only--" Dr. Gurnet finished the rest of the sentence
after the door had shut behind his patient. "Unfortunately, I am not
sure if there are quite enough of you."

CHAPTER XXIX

When the Staineses gave an entertainment it was to mark their contempt
for what more sensitive people might have considered a family
catastrophe.

They had given a ball a week from the day on which Dolores ran away with
the groom. A boat-race had been inaugurated upon the occasion on which
Winn lost his lawsuit; and some difficulty (ultimately overcome) between
James and the Admiralty had resulted in a dinner followed by fireworks
on the lawn.

When Winn returned from Davos, Lady Staines decided upon a garden party.

"Good God!" cried Sir Peter. "Do you mean to tell me I've wasted that
three hundred pounds, Sarah?" Sir Peter preferred this form of the
question to "Is my boy going to die?" He meant precisely the same thing.

"As far as I know," Lady Staines replied, "nobody ever dies _before_
causing trouble; they die after it, and add their funeral expenses to
the other inconveniences they have previously arranged for. Can't you
see the boy's marriage has gone to pot?"

"I wish you wouldn't pick up slang expressions from your sons," growled
Sir Peter. "You never hear me speaking in that loose way. Why haven't
they got a home of their own? You would ask them here--nurse, bottles,
and baby like a traveling Barnum's--and Winn glares in one corner--and
that little piece of dandelion fluff lies down and grizzles on the
nearest cushion--and now you want to have a garden party on the top of
'em! Anybody'd suppose this was a Seamen's Home from the use you put it
to! And of all damned silly ways of entertaining people, a garden
party's the