ousness, innocent and
absolute, which positively forbade retort.

"Nay!" went on the worthy man. "Carry the argument out to its logical
conclusion. If a soldier's efficiency be reduced by ill-health, what
shall we say of him when he is dead? A dead soldier--unless it be by the
memory of his example--avails nothing. The active list knows him no more.
He is gone, were he Alexander the Great and the late Marquis of Granby
rolled into one. No energy of his repels the invader; no flash of his eye
reassures the trembling virgin or the perhaps equally apprehensive matron.
He lies in his place, and the mailed heel of Bellona--to borrow an
expression of our Vicar's--passes over him without a protest. I need not
labour this point. The mere mention of it bears out my theory, and
justifies the line I have taken in practice; that in these critical times,
when Great Britain calls upon her sons to consolidate their ranks in the
face of the Invader, it is of the first importance to keep as many as
possible of them alive and in health."

"Captain Pond has mounted his hobby, I see," said the pretty Mayoress,
coming forward at the conclusion of this harangue. "But you should hear
my husband, sir, on the health-giving properties of Looe's climate."

Colonel Taubmann bowed gallantly. "Madam, I have no need. Your own
cheeks bear a more eloquent testimony to it, I warrant, than any he could
compose."

"Well, and so they do, my love," said the Doctor that evening, when she
repeated this pretty speech to him. "But I don't understand why you
should add that anyone could tell he belonged to the regular service."

"They _have_ a way with them," said the lady musingly, gazing out of
window.

"Why, my dear, have I not paid you before now a score of compliments as
neat?"

"Now don't be huffed, darling!--of course you have. But, you see, it came
as pat with him as if he had known me all my life: and I'll engage that he
has another as pat for the next woman he meets."

"I don't doubt it," agreed her spouse: "and if that's what you admire,
perhaps you would like me to compliment and even kiss every pretty girl in
the place. There's no saying what I can't do if I try."

"_Please_ don't be a goose, dear! I never said a Volunteer wasn't more
comfortable _to live with_. Those professionals are here to-day and gone
tomorrow--sometimes even sooner."

"Not to mention," added the Doctor, more than half-seriously, "that life
with the