be guilty of the unmanly weakness of
kissing--vehemently kissing--a 'big girl,' Miss Allardyce to wit? In
the course of a morning ride, Wee Willie Winkie had seen Coppy so
doing, and, like the gentleman he was, had promptly wheeled round and
cantered back to his groom, lest the groom should also see.

Under ordinary circumstances he would have spoken to his father, but
he felt instinctively that this was a matter on which Coppy ought
first to be consulted.

'Coppy,' shouted Wee Willie Winkie, reining up outside that
subaltern's bungalow early one morning--'I want to see you, Coppy!'

'Come in, young 'un,' returned Coppy, who was at early breakfast in
the midst of his dogs. 'What mischief have you been getting into
now?'

Wee Willie Winkie had done nothing notoriously bad for three days,
and so stood on a pinnacle of virtue.

'_I've_ been doing nothing bad,' said he, curling himself into a
long chair with a studious affectation of the Colonel's languor after
a hot parade. He buried his freckled nose in a tea-cup and, with eyes
staring roundly over the rim, asked: 'I say, Coppy, is it pwoper to
kiss big girls?'

'By Jove! You're beginning early. Who do you want to kiss?'

'No one. My muvver's always kissing me if I don't stop her. If it
isn't pwoper, how was you kissing Major Allardyce's big girl last
morning, by ve canal?'

Coppy's brow wrinkled. He and Miss Allardyce had with great craft
managed to keep their engagement secret for a fortnight. There were
urgent and imperative reasons why Major Allardyce should not know
how matters stood for at least another month, and this small marplot
had discovered a great deal too much.

'I saw you,' said Wee Willie Winkie calmly. 'But ve _sais_ didn't
see. I said, "_Hut jao_!"'

'Oh, you had that much sense, you young Rip,' groaned poor Coppy,
half amused and half angry. 'And how many people may you have told
about it?'

'Only me myself. You didn't tell when I twied to wide ve buffalo ven
my pony was lame; and I fought you wouldn't like.'

'Winkie,' said Coppy enthusiastically, shaking the small hand,
'you're the best of good fellows. Look here, you can't understand all
these things. One of these days--hang it, how can I make you see
it!--I'm going to marry Miss Allardyce, and then she'll be Mrs.
Coppy, as you say. If your young mind is so scandalised at the idea
of kissing big girls, go and tell your father.'

'What will happen?' said Wee Willie Winkie, who firml