shook his head. The General went on.

"No, sir, we took you good-naturedly and trusted to your sober second
thought. Well, Fan's scarcely ten days married, Jeff-Jack's a thousand
miles away, and here you come full of good intentions, hell's pavement,
you know--O John, the more I think of it the more amazed I am at all
three of you. I don't blame Jeff-Jack for leaving Fan as he did----"

"'As he did'! By George! General Halliday, that's all I do blame him
for!"

"Why, do you mean--But never mind; that's probably none of my business;
I don't see how you could ever think it was any of yours. Oh, now,
please keep your seat! No, at least, I don't blame him merely for
leaving her; a politician's a soldier; he can't stop to comfort the
sick. But he should have declined your offer to stay with her, in
_italics_, John, and sent for me!"

"Sent for--Oh, imagine him! Besides, General Halliday, Jeff-Jack knew my
offer was to myself; not to him at all, sir! But he saw another
thing--about me--as plainly as I did; yes, plainer!"

"I could do that myself, John. What was it--this time?"

"He saw my sober second thought had come!"

"H--, I wish I had his eyes! Did he say so? Wha'd he say?"

"He said what wasn't true."

The old warrior smiled satirically. "What was it?"

"'Ever mind what it was! I'm talked out."

"My dear fellow, so am I! John, honestly, I thank you for the--pardon
me--the unusual patience with which you've taken my hard words." The
speaker gripped his hearer's knee. "And you really think you've finished
your first great campaign of mistakes--eh?"

"Yes!" They rose, laughing. "Yes, and I've every reason to hope it's my
last." The General proposed drinks, but John hadn't time, and they only
swapped cigars.

"I hear you leave us again this evening," said the General.

"No; they'd like me to go, but I'm--I'm very tired and anyhow----"

"You're wha-at? Tired! Why, John--O no, you don't mean tired, you mean
insa-ane! Why, sir, that's going straight back on everything you've been
saying! John, we're not going to stand this." The General grew red.

"Whom do you mean by 'we,' General?" Both men were forgetting to smoke.

"Everybody, sir! everybody in Suez with whom you have any relations?
Why, look at it yourself! For a week running you neglect your own
interests and your company's business to do--what? Just what you'd do if
you were still under an infatuation which you've openly confessed for
years!"

"But