"Can't you say I'm out?" said Smithlord, expecting it was another foreign
decoration and wondering what language he would have to speak this time.

"It's an English Colonel," said the nurse.

Smithlord saluted and begged the nurse to show him up at once. In another
minute Colonel Blowhard had entered.

"I want to thank you," said the Colonel, "for so gallantly rescuing an
old friend of mine--Major Murgatroyd, belonging to the Nth Battalion
Blankshires, but now attached to the Qth."

Smithlord could hardly repress a start. In the excitement of the moment
he had not recognized the features of the man he had saved. It was his
old rival.

"It is curious," went on the Colonel, "that in features you resemble
another old friend of mine, Lord Smith."

"My name is Smithlord, sir."

"Ah! Any relation?"

"None," said Smithlord, crossing his thumbs under the bedclothes.

"Do you mind ringing the bell?" he went on, feeling that at all costs he
must turn the conversation. "I think it is time for my medicine."

In answer to the Colonel's ring a nurse appeared.

"Nurse Brown has just gone out," she said. "Can I do anything for you?"

"Good Heavens! Rosamund!" cried the Colonel.

"Yes, father, it is I," she replied simply. "I have come to France to
find the man I love."

"Murgatroyd?" said the Colonel. "But this gallant fellow was the man
who--By the way, let me introduce you. Private Smithlord, my daughter,
Rosamund."

The two looked at each other face to face. The intuition and ready wit of
the woman pierced the disguise which had baffled the soldier.

"Father," she cried, "it's not Smithlord, it's Lord Smith. George!"

"Rosamund!" cried George. We cannot keep the secret any longer from our
readers; it _was_ Lord Smith.

"Tut, tut, sir, what is this?" said the Colonel. "I turned you out of the
Regiment three weeks ago. What the deuce," he said, for, like all
military men, he was addicted to strong language--"what the deuce does
this mean?"

"I was innocent, sir."

"Father, he was innocent."

"He was innocent," said a hollow voice from the next bed.

In amazement they all looked at the officer lying there.

"Rosamund," he cried, "am I so greatly changed?"

The Colonel handed him his pocket mirror.

"Yes," sighed the Major, "I understand. But I am Major Murgatroyd."

"Major Murgatroyd!" they all cried.

"This gallant fellow here, whom I now know to be Lord Smith, saved my
life; I cannot let him suffe