Please do as I have asked you, and leave me, and send the boy along.
I don't think that he will leave the same flavour on the palate as the
father does.'

'I suppose,' said Jervase, 'that from your point of view I've been a
badish sort of a lot?'

'I suppose you have,' said Major de Blacquaire.

'But Polly never knew about it, and you've never had any sort of a right
to look down on him. Old Sir Ferdinand was the first of your crowd as
ever climbed to the top of the tree, and I can remember him when he was
no better off than I am.'

'I do not think,' said Major de Blacquaire, 'that I have ever
encountered quite so pestiferous a stupidity. Will you go?'

The tension of the curious interview was relieved, for Polson, who
had slowly paced the circular path which ran round the cemetery, came
limping back again, dinting the wet gravel with the crutch-headed stick
and leaning on it like a man who had achieved a forced march of many
miles.

'That's the chap,' said John Jervase, 'as fetched you out from under
fire.'

'I have a right,' said Major de Blac-quaire, 'to be as well aware of
that fact as you are, Mr. Jervase. Sergeant, I've been mistaken about
you all along. Do you mind----' he paused, and there was a break in the
aristocratic drawl he had so long affected that it had grown to be a
trick of second nature with him, 'd'you mind shaking hands, Sergeant?'

Polson Jervase reached out the hand which was not engaged with the
stick, and it happened to be the left.

'I don't want that, Sergeant,' said the Major.

'My dear fellow,' said Polson, 'it's the nearest to the heart.'

And De Blacquaire took it with a glint of moisture in his eyes.

'You ain't done that to me, Polly,' said Jervase. 'It's pretty near two
years since you've done that to me. Are you ever going to shake hands
with me again?'

Major de Blacquaire fitted his crutches to his shoulders, and stumped
away, leaving father and son together.

'There's nobody seems to understand me, Polly,' said the elder. 'I ran
my risk of getting into quod along with your Uncle James, and for a man
who's been brought up respectable, that ought to count for something.
I've owned up to everything, and I've paid for everything, and I'm a
solid man this minute. Ain't you going to shake hands with your old
father, Polly? I followed you out to the Crimea, and I learned where you
was a-lyin', wounded, and I've nursed you from the minute I found you up
till now. Shake