said: quinine and
tobacco were the main essentials.

Then, for the last time in many months, he arrayed himself in black
cloth and fine linen, chose his stick and gloves with care, and,
leaving Adderley Street behind him, turned eastward towards the home
of the Dents.

He found Ethel on the broad veranda, bordered with flower-boxes and
overlooking the garden and the blue waters of Table Bay. Dressed in
a thin white gown which, to Weldon's mind, was curiously out of
keeping with all his preconceived notions of January weather, she
rose and came forward to greet him at the top of the steps.

"At last," she said cordially, while she gave him her hand. "I began
to fear you had already gone to the front."

"Not without seeing you again," he answered, as he followed her back
to the bamboo chairs at the shaded western end of the veranda. "In
fact, I began to be rather afraid I should never see the front at
all."

"What do you mean?" she asked quickly. "Has something happened since
I saw you?"

"A great deal has happened. The thing I referred to was my first
sight of British regulars."

Her face cleared.

"Oh, is that all?"

"It is a good deal," he assured her, as he sat down. "I came out
here with all sorts of high notions regarding volunteers."

"Well?" she questioned smilingly.

"Well, they have been taken out of me. An untrained man isn't worth
much in any line, least of all in the firing line. Still, it would
be very ignominious to go back home again."

Her eyes swept over his alert, well-groomed figure.

"And when do you start for the front, Trooper Weldon?"

"How do you know I start at all?"

"How do I know you are sitting opposite me?" she asked lightly.
"Having eyes, I use them."

"And they tell you--?" he responded.

"That you are looking content with life."

The laughter died out of his eyes.

"I am," he said gravely; "perfectly content. I am enrolled in the
Scottish Horse, and I go tomorrow."

"The Scottish Horse?" she asked quickly. "Which squadron?"

"Do you know anything of it?"

"A little," she answered; "but that little is good. Then it is to
Maitland that you are going?"

"Are you omniscient, Miss Dent?"

"No; merely an inquisitive girl who remembers the answers to the
questions that she asks. My father, you know, is in the thick of
things, and it seems to me I have met half the British army, in the
four days I have been at home."

"Officers, or Tommies?" he reminded her.