e amused. You know I only want you.

CAPT, G. And you have me surely, Sweetheart?

MRS. G. I have not! Pip why don't you take me into your life?

CAPT. G. More than I do? That would be difficult, dear.

MRS. G. Yes, I suppose it would--to you. I'm no help to you--no
companion to you; and you like to have it so.

CAPT. G. Aren't you a little unreasonable, Pussy?

MRS. G. (Stamping her foot.) I'm the most reasonable woman in the
world--when I'm treated properly.

CAPT. G. And since when have I been treating you improperly?

MRS. G. Always--and since the beginning. You know you have.

CAPT. G. I don't; but I'm willing to be convinced.

MRS. G. (Pointing to saddlery.) There!

CAPT. G. How do you mean?

MRS. G. What does all that mean? Why am I not to be told? Is it so
precious?

CAPT. G. I forget its exact Government value just at present. It means
that it is a great deal too heavy.

MRS. G. Then why do you touch it?

CAPT. G. To make it lighter. See here, little love, I've one notion
and Jack has another, but we are both agreed that all this equipment is
about thirty pounds too heavy. The thing is how to cut it down without
weakening any part of it, and, at the same time, allowing the trooper
to carry everything he wants for his own comfort-socks and shirts and
things of that kind.

MRS. G. Why doesn't he pack them in a little trunk?

CAPT. G. (Kissing her.) Oh, you darling! Pack them in a little trunk,
indeed! Hussars don't carry trunks, and it's a most important thing to
make the horse do all the carrying.

MRS. G. But why need you bother about it? You're not a trooper.

CAPT. G. No; but I command a few score of him; and equipment is nearly
everything in these days.

MRS. G. More than me?

CAPT. G. Stupid! Of course not; but it's a matter that I'm tremendously
interested in, because if I or Jack, or I and Jack, work out some sort
of lighter saddlery and all that, it's possible that we may get it
adopted.

MRS. G. How?

CAPT. G. Sanctioned at Home, where they will make a sealed pattern--a
pattern that all the saddlers must copy--and so it will be used by all
the regiments.

MRS. G. And that interests you?

CAPT. G. It's part of my profession, y'know, and my profession is a good
deal to me. Everything in a soldier's equipment is important, and if we
can improve that equipment, so much the better for the soldiers and for
us.

MRS. G. Who's "us"?

CAPT. G. Jack and I; only Jack's notions