be worse than ever for him."

"It will," said Peggy. "But I think it splendid of him to try. How did
he bring himself to do it?"

"Breed tells," said the Dean. "That's what every one seems to have
forgotten. He's a thoroughbred Doggie. There's the old French proverb:
_Bon chien chasse de race._"

Peggy looked at him gratefully. "You're very comforting," she said.

"We must knit him some socks," observed Mrs. Conover. "I hear those
supplied to the army are very rough and ready."

"My dear," smiled the Dean, "Marmaduke's considerable income does not
cease because his pay in the army is one and twopence a day; and I
should think he would have the sense to provide himself with adequate
underclothing. Also, judging from the account of your shopping orgy in
London, he has already laid in a stock that would last out several
Antarctic winters."

The Dean tapped his egg gently.

"Then what can we do for the poor boy?" asked his wife.

The Dean scooped the top of his egg off with a vicious thrust.

"We can cut out slanderous tongues," said he.

There had been much calumniating cackle in the little town; nay, more:
cackle is of geese; there had been venom of the snakiest kind. The
Deanery, father and mother and daughter, each in their several ways,
had suffered greatly. It is hard to stand up against poisoned
ridicule.

"My dear," continued the Dean, "it will be our business to smite the
Philistines, hip and thigh. The reasons which guided Marmaduke in the
resignation of his commission are the concern of nobody. The fact
remains that Mr. Marmaduke Trevor resigned his commission in order
to----"

Peggy interrupted with a smile. "'In order to'--isn't that a bit
Jesuitical, daddy?"

"I have a great respect for the Jesuits, my dear," said the Dean,
holding out an impressive egg-spoon. "The fact remains, in the eyes of
the world, as I remarked, that Mr. Marmaduke Trevor of Denby Hall, a
man of fortune and high position in the county, resigned his
commission in order, for reasons best known to himself, to serve his
country more effectively in the humbler ranks of the army, and--my
dear, this egg is far too full for war time"--with a hazardous plunge
of his spoon he had made a yellow yelky horror of the egg-shell--"and
I'm going to proclaim the fact far and wide, and--indeed--rub it in."

"That'll be jolly decent of you, daddy," said his daughter. "It will
help a lot."

In the failure of Marmaduke to retain his commi