"

"Not if I know it!" said the young officer, with an energy that startled
his hearers. "I'll prescribe for myself--Rest! Here, who's got a good
cigar?"

Half a dozen were outstretched directly.

"I said _a_ cigar!" growled Lacey. "I haven't got six mouths! Hi,
Brigley, a light!"

But Jerry had left the room, and matches were offered by the nearest
neighbour.

"That fellow's always out of the way when I want him!" snarled Lacey,
savagely, as he struck a match, which went off with a loud crack, and
lit his cigar, at which he began to puff furiously.

"Your injuries are paining you, my dear Lacey."

"So would yours, if you had them!" cried the young man with a snap; and
the colonel smiled. "I don't see where the fun comes in, sir!" growled
Lacey, angrily.

"I beg your pardon, my dear fellow," cried his chief. "I really
sympathise with you, though."

"Try another way, sir," said Lacey, looking round with his eyes rolling,
and then he sat, smoked, and sipped in silence.

"See your ladies home safely?" said the colonel at last.

"Oh, yes, sir; I saw them home safely," cried the lieutenant, snatching
his cigar from his lips and dashing it into the empty grate. "Colonel,
did you ever have an old woman in hysterics on your hands?"

"Well, I have had ladies in hysterics on my hands."

"But not for an hour and a half! Oh, it was awful, and all the time
someone else so ill she could hardly stir. By George, what a scene! I
don't care. You fellows sneer at me, and say I don't know anything
about women: but I do. Old maids who have hysterics are the most
selfish wretches that ever breathed. I couldn't get away."

"Of course not," said one of the officers. "That's your fault."

"My fault! Why?"

"Being so good-looking!"

"Good-looking! Ha! ha! ha! Look at me!" cried Lacey, leaping up and
surveying his scorched face, and then his blackened uniform and general
aspect of having been badly in the wars. "Yes, I look handsome, don't
I? I say, though, I thought it was all over with me. I couldn't get
free. Who helped me out?"

"That plucky little bandsman!"

"Not Smithson?" cried the lieutenant.

"Yes, Smithson," said the colonel.

"God bless him!" cried the lieutenant in a low voice full of emotion.

"Amen!" said the colonel. "He saved the lives of that sweet girl--Miss
Deane, yours, and then Sir Mark Frayne's."

Lacey began to move towards the door; and the doctor rose, gave the
colonel