t!"

"Od's life, sir, and that's true--indecent is the word!" nodded Sir
Benjamin tapping his snuff-box, "and gentlemen, if the human optic,
basilisk-like, could blast soul and wither flesh--Dalroyd would have
hem! I say would have known--ha--would have made a sufficiently
uncomfortable not to say painful exit--or setting forth the matter in
plainer terms Dalroyd hem----"

"Hold hard, Ben!" yawned Alvaston. "Y' gettin' lost again. What our
Ben wants t' say 's simply Dalroyd's f'low looked bloody murder 'n so
he did."

"Ha--begad! He did so!"

"Dalroyd is well enough enjoyed now and then," said Mr. Marchdale
sententiously, "but as a constant diet is apt to become devilish
indigestible! And as regards his unfailing lack with the cards, I
shouldn't wonder----"

"Then don't, Tony--don't!" murmured Lord Alvaston, crossing his slender
legs. "Dalroyd may be this, that or t'other, but Dalroyd ain't
here--enough of him."

"Aye, true," nodded Sir Benjamin, "true indeed, Dalroyd is gone and we,
dear Major, like this year's roses, are going too. In a week sir, this
fraternity amorous will suffer disruption, our lady hath so decreed,
the fiat hath gone forth."

"Indeed sir, you surprise me!" said the Major, glancing from one to
another, "whence comes this?"

Here Sir Benjamin shook his head and sighed, Sir Jasper stifled a
groan, Mr. Marchdale swore beneath his breath, the Captain uttered a
feeble "Haw" and Lord Alvaston whistled dolefully.

"Sir," sighed Sir Benjamin, "you behold in us a band of woeful wooers
each alike condemned to sigh, and yet to sigh in unison and in this,
the measure of our woe doth find some small abatement. Each hath wooed
and each hath proved his wooing vain, his dreams, his visions must
remain but--hem!--but dreams and----"

"Hold on, Ben," murmured Alvaston, "burn me but y're gettin' int' th'
weeds again! What poor old Ben's strivin' t' say 's simply that----"

"Betty'll ha' none of us," scowled Mr. Marchdale, "though if I'd had
more time----"

"None of us!" added the Captain, "er--haw! Not one!" Here Sir Jasper,
trying to sip his wine and groan at the same time, choked.

"And yet--and yet," sighed Sir Benjamin, holding his glass between his
eye and the light, "seeing that our ahem! our unspeakable grief is
common to us, each and all, it shall, methinks, but knit closer the
bonds of our fellowship and we should unite to wish her happiness with
whatsoever unknown mortal she shal