to whom he was made known, betokening the man accustomed to
move in circles where such knowledge and the application of it was
indispensable, and who knew, too, that slight from him would have given
chagrin. But another moment, and the junior Medical Officer, a
black-avised little Irishman from County Meath, had gripped him by both
hands, and was exclaiming in his juicy brogue, real delight beaming in his
round, rosy face:

"Saxham! Saxham of St. Stephens, and the grand ould days! Deny me now, to
my face. Say, 'Tom McFadyen, I don't know you,' if you dare."

The blue eyes shone out vivid gentian-colour in the kindly smile that
illumined them, the stern lips parted in a laugh that showed the sound
white closely-set teeth.

"Tom McFadyen, I do know you. But if you offer to pay me that cab-fare you
owe me, I shall say I'm wrong, and that it's another man."

"Hould your tongue, jewel," drolled the little junior, who delighted in
exaggerating the brogue that tripped naturally off his Irish tongue.
"Don't be after giving me away to the Chief and the Senior that believe
me, by me own account, to be descended from Ollamh Fodla, that was King of
Tara, and owned the cow-grazing from Trim to Athboy, and ate boiled
turnips off shields of gold before potatoes were invented, when the
bog-oaks were growing as acorns on the tree. And as to the cab-fare, sure
I hailed the hansom out of politeness to your honour's glory, the day that
saw me going off to the Army Medical School at Netley, wid all my worldly
belongin's in wan ould hat-box and the half of a carpet-bag. Wirra, wirra!
but it's some folks have luck, says I, as the train took me out av'
Waterloo in a third-class smoker, while you were left on the platform
sheddin' half-crowns out av every pore for the newspaper boys an' porters
to pick up, and smilin' like a baby dhramin' av the bottle. You'd passed
your exam in Anatomy wid wan hand held behind you an' a glove on the
other, you'd got your London University Scholarship in Physiology, and
you'd fallen head over ears in love with the prettiest and sweetest girl
that ever wore out shoe-leather. You wrote to me two years later to say
you'd been appointed an in-surgeon on the Junior Staff, an' that you were
engaged to be married. But divil the taste of weddin'-cake did I ever get
off you. What----"

The little Irishman, thoughtlessly rattling on, pulled up in an instant,
seeing the ghastly unmistakable change upon the other's fac