r Dr. Pettigrew, that prim little effigy of a man, and
his delightful Irish wife, and how conversation used to run when he was
within hearing?"

"Glad to have a tasting, Kit," and the General lay back in expectation.

"'Oi remember him, as foine an upstanding young officer as ye would
wish to see, six feet in his boots.'

"'About five feet ten, I believe, was his exact height, my dear.'

"'Maybe he was n't full grown then, but he was a good-looking man, and
as pretty a rider as ever sat on a horse. Well, he was a Warwickshire
man . . .'

"'Bucks, he said himself.'

"'He was maybe born in both counties for all you know.'

"'Alethea,' with a cough and reproving look.

"'At any rate Oi saw him riding in a steeplechase in the spring of '67,
at Aldershot.'

"'It must, I think, have been '66. We were at Gibraltar in '67.
Please be accurate.'

"'Bother your accuracy, for ye are driving the pigs through my story.
Well, Oi was telling ye about the steeplechase Jimmy Brook rode. It
was a mile, and he had led for half, and so he was just four hundred
yards from the post.'

"'A half would be eight hundred and eighty yards.'

"'Oi wish from my heart that geography, arithmetic, memory, and
accuracy, and every other work of Satan were drowned with Moses in the
Red Sea. Go, for any sake, and bring me a glass of irritated water.'"

"Capital," cried the General. "I heard that myself, or something like
it. Pettigrew was a tiresome wretch, but he was devoted to his wife in
his own way."

"Which was enough to make a woman throw things at him, as very likely
Alethea did when they were alone. What a fool he was to bother about
facts; the charm of Lithy was that she had none--dates and such like
would have made her quite uninteresting. The only dates I can quote
myself are the Rebellion and the Mutiny, and I 'll add the year we came
home. I don't like datey women; but then it's rather cheap for one to
say that who does n't know anything," and Kate sighed very becomingly
at the contemplation of her ignorance.

"Except French, which she speaks like a Parisian," murmured the General.

"That's a fluke, because I was educated at the Scotch convent with
these dear old absurd nuns who were Gordons, and Camerons, and
Macdonalds, and did n't know a word of English."

"Who can manage her horse like a rough-rider," continued the General,
counting on his finger, "and dance like a Frenchwoman, and play whist
like a half-pay o