d a band
playing. I didn't take any particular notice of it and I was going to
pass it by--think of it, mother, I was going to pass it by!--when the
band stopped and a most beautiful voice started singing. It was Poppy.
Oh, mother, you must hear Poppy sing some day. She has such a wonderful
voice. It's a very rich contralto. Before she was saved she sang on a
pier. Well, I got into the crowd, and presently I got close and I saw
her." A dreadful coyness came on him, and he turned to Poppy and, it was
plain to all of them, squeezed her hand under the table. She looked
straight in front of her with the dumb malignity of a hobbled mule that
is being teased. "Well, I knew at once. I've often envied you and mother
for going to Spain and South America, and wondered if the ladies were
really like what you see in pictures. All big and dark and handsome, but
when Poppy came along I saw I didn't have to go abroad for that! And you
know, mother, Poppy _is_ Spanish--half. Her name's Poppy Alicante. Her
mother was English, but she married a Spanish gentleman, of very good
family he was. In fact, he was a real don, wasn't he, Poppy? But he died
when she was a baby, and as he'd been tricked out of his inheritance by
a wicked uncle, there wasn't much money about, so Poppy's mother married
again, to a gentleman connected with the Navy, who lives just the other
side of the river from over here. Funny, isn't it? But it was a very
godless home, and they behaved disgracefully to Poppy, when a rich man
who saw her on the road when he was riding along in his motor-car wanted
to marry her, and she refused because she didn't love him. They were so
cruel to her that she had to leave home and earn her living, though she
never expected to. But she didn't like mixing with rough people, so as
she'd always had Jesus she joined the Army. And that's how we met."

After a pause Marion said, speaking fatuously in order to avoid the
appearance of irony: "You're quite a romantic bride, Poppy."

The woman in uniform bit into her toast and swallowed it unchewed.

"Well, I knew at once I'd met the one woman, as they say, and I hung
about just to see if I couldn't see more of her. And that's how I got
Jesus. She brought me to Him. Mother, mother," he cried, in a sudden
pale, febrile passion, "there's few have such a blessed beginning to
their marriage! We ought to be very happy, oughtn't we?"

"Yes, Roger," she answered him. "You'll be very happy--a husband t