Banner receives
orders he at once puts his cap on, pushes it to the back of his head and
passes a weary hand across a worried brow. When he has confused himself
to the top of his bent he searches round for other victims. On this
Sunday night ill luck directed his footsteps to my billet; seeing me in
bed, he became positively aghast, though I firmly believe he was
inwardly delighted to discover so depressing a sight.

You may imagine the colloquy that ensued; how he repeated to me, with a
nice sense of climax, the news which I had already received from the
corporal. "It is impossible to do it," said he. "Quite," said I, turning
on my other side. "But good heavens, man, you're not going to _sleep_?"
he asked. "I'm going to have a try," I told him. The result of the
business was that Banner eventually did all my packing for me, feeling,
no doubt, that I should be left behind if he didn't. Of course he was
left behind himself. Really, I suppose, I ought to be very grateful to
the dear old fellow; but I have the feeling that, if he had stayed away,
I should have had my sleep and every thing would have arranged itself in
the meantime, and would have arranged itself _rightly_.

We marched forth at break of day from that town where we have been
stationed the last three months, and it shows how unavailing are these
precautions for secrecy when I tell you that the local tailor was up and
about before dawn collecting his unpaid accounts notwithstanding. Since
then we have slept in hay-lofts, and sometimes in eligible villas,
knowing the dignity and pleasure of the white sheet again. Our
willy-nilly hosts are all firmly convinced that we want conversation
confined to the more gruesome experiences of their friends and relations
who have got mixed up in this war, but otherwise they are kindness
itself. At the house I at present inhabit it is found absolutely
essential that the father and the mother, three daughters, two
maidservants, the nurse, and even, I believe, the infant son, should
rise from their beds at 5 o'clock when reveille is, at the whim of the
G.O.C., put at that unforgivable hour. It is only myself who may lie
a-bed till six!

Well, Charles, I'll let you know in due course what becomes of me, that
is if I ever know myself. I see little more of the business than the
backs of the files marching ahead of me, and even if I discover the
names of our resting-places I have generally forgotten them in the haste
of our depar