within his speech, and he bent low over the hand which was proffered to
him.

The visitor's type was as pronouncedly English as John Jervase's own,
and yet it could hardly have differed further from it if the two men
had been inhabitants of planets strange to one another. John Jervase
was British _bourgeois_ from head to foot, and the General from crown to
sole was an aristocrat. His very figure told the observer that, and the
manly aquiline features and the mild, yet searching blue eye had never
left an instant's doubt about it in the mind of any man. He was some six
feet four in stature, and the slight stoop which sat upon his shoulders
looked somehow as if it had been brought about by the innate courtesy of
a man who could not refrain from bending to people of inferior stature.
It scarcely detracted from the military character of his carriage, and,
indeed, the General could stand up straight enough when he chose, as
divers of the old incorrigibles who had been under his command in many
climates knew full well. It was always a bad sign to one of these when
he saw the General square his shoulders: and if, in addition to this,
both hands were sent at the same time to twist the ends of the great
drooping grey moustache, the old offender knew that his plight was
serious indeed. Yet, for a grizzled old campaigner, who was now growing
nigh to three score years, the General was marvellously mild and sweet
in manner. His features, to be sure, were high, and in some of their
signs a little harsh; but his mouth was very gentle in expression,
and the large yet deepset eyes beamed with a kind simplicity. It was
a common saying in his fighting days that Boswell's men would have
followed him into hell. But children trusted and loved him at sight; and
it was a pretty picture sometimes in his social hours to see him as the
centre of a bevy of young girls--over whom he always seemed to exercise
a perfectly unconscious fascination.

'You've been to town, Jervase, I understand,' said the General, 'What's
the news there?'

'The news, sir,' said Mr. Jervase. 'The news, sir, has come at last,
and by this time I suppose Her Majesty's forces have got their marching
orders.'

'Do you mean it's war, Jervase?' cried the General.

'I mean it's war, sir,' Jervase answered. 'The latest news, before I
came away, was that the Queen had sent a message to Parliament that
negotiations with the Czar are broken off. The message goes on to say
that