e," "Alice in
Wonderland," and a more recent discovery, Owen Wister's "Virginian." A
widowed mother in a Yorkshire dower house was the only relative he was
ever heard to refer to, and for her benefit every Sunday afternoon he sat
down for an hour, as he had since schooldays, and wrote a boyish,
detailed chronicle of his doings during the past week.

The two watch-keeping Lieutenants sat one on each arm of the deep-seated
chesterfield opposite the fire. They were the Inseparables of the Mess,
knit together in that curious blend of antagonistic and sympathetic
traits of character which binds young men in an austere affection passing
the love of woman. One was short and stout, the other tall and lean; an
illustration in the First Lieutenant's edition of "Alice in Wonderland"
supplied them with their nicknames, which they accepted from the first
without criticism or demur.

The Fleet Surgeon sat between them cleaning a pipe with a collection of
seagull's feather gathered for the purpose on the golf links ashore. He
was thin, a grey-haired, silent man. His face, in repose, was that of a
deliberate thinker whose thoughts had not led him to an entirely happy
goal. Yet his smile when amused had a quality of gratitude to the
jester, not altogether without pathos. He had a slightly cynical
demeanour, a bitter tongue, and a curiously sympathetic, almost tender
manner with the sick. He was professedly a fierce woman-hater, and when
ashore passed children quickly with averted eyes.

Of a different type was the Paymaster, sunny as a schoolboy,
irresponsible in leisure hours as the youngest member of the Mess.
Perhaps there had been a time when he had not found life an altogether
laughing matter. He had an invalid wife; his means were small, and most
of his life had been spent at sea. But misfortune seemed to have but
tossed a challenge to his unquenchable optimism and faith in the mercy of
God. He had picked up the gage with a smile, flung it back with a laugh,
and with drawn blade joined the gallant band of those who strive
eternally to defend the beleaguered Citadel of Human Happiness.

Others came and went among the gathering; the Engineer Commander,
fiercely bearded and moustached, who cherished an inexplicable belief
that a studied soldierly accent and bearing helped him in his path
through life. The Major, clean-shaven and philosophic; the Gunnery
Lieutenant, preoccupied with his vast responsibilities, a
seaman-