my Officers saved the man
and smoothed over the domestic worries; but how he gets on with the
telephone instruments is not recorded.

_Case Five_.--Unsuitable marriage and bad temper. The wife had become
involved in some trouble in early life, and unwisely, as it proved,
confessed to the husband, who brought it up against her every time
there was a quarrel between them. In this instance, also, suicide was
averted and the domestic differences were arranged.

_Case Six_--A man in a business firm, married, with children, was
through no fault of his own thrown out of work, owing to the
appointment of a new manager. He came at last to the Embankment, and
afterwards applied for a job in answer to an advertisement. The
advertiser told him it was a pity that as he had been so near the
river he did not go into it. The man determined to commit suicide; but
the Officers dissuaded him from this course and helped him. He
returned a year later in a condition of considerable prosperity,
having worked his way to a Colony where he is now doing extremely
well, his visit to England being in connexion with the business in
which he had become a partner.

And so on _ad infinitum._ I might tell many such stories, some of them
of a much more tragic character than those I have instanced, but
refrain from doing so lest by chance they should be identified,
especially where the individuals concerned belonged to the upper
strata of society. Perhaps enough has been said, however, to show what
a great work is being done by the Army in this Department, where in
London alone it deals with several would-be suicides every day.

Of course, some of these people are frauds. For instance, one of the
Officers told me that not long ago a medical man, who was evidently a
drunkard, called on him and said that he would commit suicide unless
money were given to him. He was informed that this was against the
rules; whereon the man produced a bottle and said that if the money
were not forthcoming, he would drink its contents and make an end of
himself in the office. As may be imagined the Officer went through an
anxious moment, not quite knowing what to do. However, he looked the
man over, summed him up to the best of his judgment and ability, and
coming to the conclusion that he was a bully and a braggart, said that
he might do what he liked. The man swallowed the contents of the
bottle, exclaiming that he would be dead in a few minutes, and a pause
ensued, du