"

"O Sergeant!" she said softly; and then "I'm glad you haven't lost it!"

"A fortnight ago mam," continued the Sergeant, "also towards three
o'clock in the arternoon I--kissed you and the--the memory o' that kiss
is never a-going to fade mam. You'll mind as I kissed you, mam?"

"Did you, Sergeant?"

"Ha' you forgot, mam?"

"Almost!" she answered softly, whereupon the Sergeant took a swift pace
nearer, halted suddenly and turning away again, went on speaking:

"I kissed you for three reasons, same being as hereunder namely and
viz. to wit, first because I wanted to, second because your pretty red
lips was too near and too rosy to resist and third because I did mean
to beg o' you to--to be--my wife."

"Did you--Zebedee?"

"I did so--then, but now I--I can't----"

"Why not--Zebedee?"

"Dooty mam, dooty forbids."

"You mean 'duty,' Sergeant," she corrected him gently.

"Dooty mam, pre-cisely! 'Tis his honour the Major, I thought as he
were set on matrimony 'stead o' which I now find he's set on
campaigning again, he talks o' nothing else o' late--and if he goes--I
go. And if I go I can't ask you to wed--'twouldn't be fair."

"And why does he want to go?"

"Witchcraft, mam, devils, sorcery, black magic, and damned spells.
Mrs. Agatha I do tell you he are not been his own man since he
saw--what he saw i' the orchard t'other night."

"And what was that?" enquired Mrs. Agatha, glancing up bright-eyed from
her fragrant basketful of roses.

"A apparation in form o' the dev--no, the devil in form of a
apparation, mam."

"Fiddlededee!" exclaimed Mrs. Agatha. The Sergeant jumped and stared.

"Mam!" said he in gentle reproach, "don't say that--ghosts is serious
and----"

"A fiddle-stick for your ghost! 'Twould take more than a shade to put
his honour off his food, Sergeant Zebedee Tring! The question is, who
was your ghost? What was he like?"

"Why since you're for cross-examinating me, I'll confess I caught but a
glimpse of same, same having vanished itself away afore my very eyes."

"Where to?"

"Into my Lady Carlyon's garden, mam, and it dissolved itself so
quick----"

"Tut!" exclaimed Mrs. Agatha,

"Tut is very well, mam, and--vastly fetching as you say it but none the
less----"

"Ha' done Sergeant and let me think! Tell me, the night you went
ghost-seeking did you catch ever a one--a man, say?"

"Aye, I did so, mam--one o' these London sparks and very fierce he were
too!"

"Which o