behoof alone.

The play was none the worse that most of the actors were too young to
learn parts, so that there was very little of the rather tedious
dialogue, only plenty of dress and ribbons, and of fighting with the
wooden swords. But though St. George looked bonny enough to warm any
father's heart, as he marched up and down with an air learned by
watching many a parade in barrack-square and drill-ground, and though
the Valiant Slasher did not cry in spite of falling hard and the
Doctor treading accidentally on his little finger in picking him up,
still the Captain and his wife sighed nearly as often as they smiled,
and the mother dropped tears as well as pennies into the cap which the
King of Egypt brought round after the performance.

THE CAPTAIN'S WIFE.

Many many years back the Captain's wife had been a child herself, and
had laughed to see the village mummers act the Peace Egg, and had been
quite happy on Christmas Eve. Happy, though she had no mother. Happy,
though her father was a stern man, very fond of his only child, but
with an obstinate will that not even she dared thwart. She had lived
to thwart it, and he had never forgiven her. It was when she married
the Captain. The old man had a prejudice against soldiers, which was
quite reason enough, in his opinion, for his daughter to sacrifice the
happiness of her future life by giving up the soldier she loved. At
last he gave her her choice between the Captain and his own favour and
money. She chose the Captain, and was disowned and disinherited.

The Captain bore a high character, and was a good and clever officer,
but that went for nothing against the old man's whim. He made a very
good husband too; but even this did not move his father-in-law, who
had never held any intercourse with him or his wife since the day of
their marriage, and who had never seen his own grandchildren. Though
not so bitterly prejudiced as the old father, the Captain's wife's
friends had their doubts about the marriage. The place was not a
military station, and they were quiet country folk who knew very
little about soldiers, whilst what they imagined was not altogether
favourable to "red-coats" as they called them. Soldiers are
well-looking generally, it is true (and the Captain was more than
well-looking--he was handsome); brave, of course it is their business
(and the Captain had V.C. after his name and several bits of ribbon
on his patrol jacket). But then, thought the good