to try and fatten a canary on a dog
biscuit."

"Does she keep canaries then?" enquired Miss Brent.

"I'm afraid that was only my clumsy effort at metaphor," responded
Elton with a disarming smile. "She adopts human methods. They are
generally successful."

Elton went on to describe something of the success that had attended
Lady Meyfield's hostels, as she called them. They were famous
throughout the Service. When war broke out someone had suggested that
she should use her tact and knowledge of human nature in treating cases
that defied the army M.O.'s. "A tyrant is the first victim of tact,"
Godfrey Elton had said of Lord Meyfield, and in his ready acquiescence
in his lady's plans Lord Meyfield had tacitly concurred.

Lady Meyfield had conferred with her lord in respect to all her plans
and arrangements, until he had come to regard the hostels as the
children of his own brain, admirably controlled and conducted by his
wife. He seldom appeared, keeping to the one place free from the flood
of red, white, and blue--his library. Here with his books and
terra-cottas he "grew old with a grace worthy of his rank," as Elton
phrased it.

Lady Meyfield's "cases" were mostly those of shell-shock, or nervous
troubles. She studied each patient's needs, and decided whether he
required diversion or quiet: if diversion, he was sent to her town
house; if quiet, he went to one of her country houses.

At first it had been thought that a woman could not discipline a number
of men; but Lady Meyfield had settled this by allowing them to
discipline themselves. All misdemeanours were reported to and judged
by a committee of five elected by ballot from among the patients.
Their decisions were referred to Lady Meyfield for ratification. The
result was that in no military hospital, or convalescent home, in the
country was the discipline so good.

Miss Brent listened perfunctorily to Elton's description of Lady
Meyfield's success. She had not come to Grosvenor Square to hear about
hostels, or the curing of shell-shocked soldiers, and her eyes roved
restlessly about the room.

"You know Lord Peter?" she enquired at length.

"Intimately," Elton replied as he took her cup from her.

"Do you like him?" Miss Brent was always direct.

"Unquestionably." Elton's tone was that of a man who found nothing
unusual either in the matter or method of interrogation.

"Is he steady?" was the next question.

"As a rock," responded Elto