t listening. She rises for a moment to hear what she may
of how the talk in the next room goes on; and then, coming back, says
again she wishes Gerry was safe indoors, and Sally again says, "Oh,
_he's_ all right!" The confidence these two have in one another makes
them a couple apart--a sort of league.

What Mrs. Fenwick heard a scrap of in the next room would have been,
but for the alarums and excursions of the two enemies aforementioned,
a consecutive conversation as follows:

"You're gettin' round, Colonel?"

"A deal better, Major. I want to speak to _you_."

"Fire away, old Cockywax! You remember Hopkins?--Cartwright
Hopkins--man with a squint--at Mooltan--expression of his, 'Old
Cockywax.'"

"I remember him. Died of typhoid at Burrampore. Now you listen to me,
old chap, and don't talk--you only make yourself cough."

"It's only the dam fog. _I'm_ all right."

"Well, shut up. That child in the next room--it's her I want to talk
about. You're the only man, as far as I know, that knows the story.
She doesn't. She's not to be told."

"Mum's the word, sir. Always say nothin', that's my motto.
Penderfield's daughter at Khopal--at least, he was her father. One dam
father's as good as another, as long as he goes to the devil." This may
be a kind of disclaimer of inheritance as a factor to be reckoned with,
an obscure suggestion that human parentage is without influence on
character. It is not well expressed.

"Listen to me, Roper. You know the story. That's the only man I can't
say God forgive him to. God forgive _me_, but I can't."

"Devil take me if I can!... Yes, it's all right. They're all in the
next room...."

"But the woman was worse. She's living, you know...."

"I know--shinin' light--purifying society--that's her game! I'd purify
_her_, if I had my way."

"Come a bit nearer--my voice goes. I've thought it all out. If the
girl, who supposes herself to be the daughter of her mother's husband,
tries to run you into a corner--you understand?"

"I understand."

"Well, don't you undeceive her. Her mother has never told her
_anything_. She doesn't suppose she had any hand in the divorce. She
thinks his name was Graythorpe, and doesn't know he wasn't her father.
Don't you undeceive her--promise."

But the speaker is so near the end of his tether that the Major has
barely time to say, "Honour bright, Colonel," when the bronchial storm
bursts. It may be that the last new anodyne, which is warranted to