basket. "What's this?"

"You will forgive my mentioning it, Mrs. Treacher; but these good
fellows very likely expected a sixpence or so for their trouble. If you
wouldn't mind lending me back--for a short time only, a couple of
shillings out of the four that--that I----"

"Very sorry, sir," said Mrs. Treacher, "but I spent 'em."

"What! Already?"

"Which I didn't like," pursued Mrs. Treacher, stonily, "to insult the
lady's stomach with the kind of eatables I found in the larder. So
while you was away, sir, I took the liberty to slip down to
Tregaskisses and lay out three shillings. Which, finding no one in
charge but that half-baked boy of his, I got good value for the money;
and a sight better bacon than this, I don't mind saying--for all you
have been so lavish."

She peered into the basket and looked up sharply. It was a
cross-examining look, and seemed to ask where he had found the money
for all this extravagance. The Commandant, evading it, turned and
stared down the road, where already the two seamen had passed out of
sight.

"You needn't mind them, sir," said Mrs. Treacher, reassuringly. "It's
light come and light go with sailors."

Nevertheless, when the Commandant turned to accept the assurance, half
eagerly and yet less than half convinced, she would not meet his eye;
but picked up the basket and staggered along with it to the Barrack
door. "There's a saying," said Mrs. Treacher, eagerly, halting there,
"that sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. I've found it
comforting before now. But it don't seem to allow for three meals per
diem; and how to make bacon and eggs for dinner look different from
bacon and eggs for breakfast is a question that'll take thought. You
didn't happen to think upon cheese, now?"

"I did," said the Commandant, triumphantly. "There's half a pound of
cheese--the very best Cheddar--or, so Tregaskis assured me."

"Tregaskis!" Mrs. Treacher put down her nose and sniffed the basket.
"Tregaskis never sold better than third-class American in all his
life."

"She comes from America," the Commandant hazarded.

"I shouldn't advise you to build on that," said Mrs. Treacher,
dubiously; "but we'll hope for the best; and with beer in the place of
tea it mayn't look altogether like breakfast over again."

He was stepping into the passage when she touched his sleeve in sudden
contrition.

"I didn't mention it before, sir; but hearing as the sailors had
brought up her boxes, she