entenced to the charge of a village
dispensary."

"No matter how clever you are, there must be discipline; that's what
I've always told the youngsters in my regiment."

The rector sighed; it was one of those hopeless little sighs a man
involuntarily heaves when he finds that his companion in a _tete-a-tete_
is always "half an hour behind the coach."

"I intended, besides," resumed Millar, "that Ogden should have
recommended to the Government the establishment of a small hospital down
here; an additional fifty or sixty pounds a year would have been a great
help to Layton."

"And of course he 'll do it, when you ask him," said the hearty Colonel.
"Now that he has seen the man, and had the measure of his capacity, he
'll be all the readier to serve him."

"The cleverest of all my school and college companions sacrificed his
whole career in life by shooting the pheasant a great minister had just
'marked.' He was about to be invited to spend a week at Drayton; but
the invitation never came."

"I protest, Millar, I don't understand that sort of thing."

"Have you never felt, when walking very fast, and eagerly intent upon
some object, that if an urchin crossed your path, or came rudely against
you, it was hard to resist the temptation of giving him a box on the
ear? I don't mean to say that the cases are parallel, but great people
do, somehow, acquire a habit of thinking that the road ought always to
be cleared for _them_, and they will not endure whatever interferes with
their wishes."

"But don't you think if you gave Layton a hint--"

"Is n't that like it? Hear that---"

A loud burst of laughter from the adjoining room cut short the colloquy,
and Layton's voice was heard in a tone of triumph, saying, "I saw your
plan--I even let you follow it up to the last, for I knew you were
checkmated."

"I 'm off my play; I have not touched a chessman these three years,"
said Ogden, pettishly.

"Nor I for three times three years; nor was it ever my favorite game."

"I'm coming to crave a cup of tea from you, Millar," said Ogden,
entering the drawing-room, flushed in the cheek, and with a flurried
manner.

"Who won the game?" asked the Colonel, eagerly.

"Dr. Layton was the conqueror; but I don't regard myself as an ignoble
foe, notwithstanding," said Ogden, with a sort of look of appeal towards
the doctor.

"I 'll give you a bishop and play you for--" He stopped in some
confusion, and then, with an effort at a la