, had been rather rude to Boltt. It had
put some intimate, he might say, impertinent, questions to Boltt, but
Boltt had borne this impertinent inquisition with fortitude. He had not
made any answer to it....

"Hilloa, Paddy!" Lady Cecily called across the room to Henry. "Aren't
you at the war?"

"Well, no, I only got to London...."

"Oh, but everybody's going. Jimphy and everybody! Except Mr. Boltt, of
course. He's unfit or something. Aren't you, Mr. Boltt?"

"Ah, if I were only a young man again, Lady Cecily!..."

"But he's writing to the papers, and that's something, isn't it?" Cecily
interrupted. "And I'm making mittens for the soldiers. We're all making
mittens. Except Mr. Boltt, of course."

"Who was the johnny who's just gone out?" Jimphy demanded. "Was he the
chap who sells the stuff you make the mittens out of?..."

"Oh, no, Jimphy, he was a photographer. We're all to have our
photographs in the _Daily Reflexion_...."

"Except Mr. Boltt?" Henry asked maliciously.

"No, Mr. Boltt's to be in it too. Holding wool. I've been photographed
in three different positions ... beginning to knit a mitten, half-way
through a mitten, and finishing a mitten. I was rather anxious to be
taken with a pile of socks, but I can't knit socks!..."

"You can't knit mittens either," said Jimphy.

It appeared that Lady Cecily's maid was allowed to undo her mistress's
false stitches and finish the mittens properly....

"Well, of course, I'm not really a knitter," Cecily admitted, "but I
feel I must do something for the country. I've a good mind to take up
nursing. I met Jenny Customs this morning, and she says it's quite easy,
and the uniform is rather nice...."

"But don't you require to be trained?" Henry asked dubiously.

"Oh, yes, if you're a professional. But I'm not. I'm doing it for the
country. Jenny Customs went to a First Aid Class, and learnt quite a lot
about bandaging. She can change sheets while the patient is in bed, and
she says he can scarcely tell that she's doing it. I should love to be
able to do that. She told me a lot of things, and I really know the
first lesson already. I can shake a bottle of medicine the proper
way!..."

"Can't we have tea or something?" said Jimphy. "Oh, by the way, Cecily,
Quinn says that chap Gilbert Farlow's hanging about Scotland Yard...."

"Goodness me, what for?" Cecily demanded in a startled voice. "He hasn't
done anything, has he?"

"No, of course he hasn't. He's try