y of saying you're glad to get rid of me.
But men in your condition are allowed to be selfish.'

'I didn't mean that. Will you get a hundred pounds cashed for me before
you leave?'

'That's a slender amount for housekeeping, isn't it?'

'Oh, it's only for--marriage expenses.'

Torpenhow brought him the money, counted it out in fives and tens, and
carefully put it away in the writing table.

'Now I suppose I shall have to listen to his ravings about his girl
until I go. Heaven send us patience with a man in love!' he said to
himself.

But never a word did Dick say of Maisie or marriage. He hung in the
doorway of Torpenhow's room when the latter was packing and asked
innumerable questions about the coming campaign, till Torpenhow began to
feel annoyed.

'You're a secretive animal, Dickie, and you consume your own smoke,
don't you?' he said on the last evening.

'I--I suppose so. By the way, how long do you think this war will last?'

'Days, weeks, or months. One can never tell. It may go on for years.'

'I wish I were going.'

'Good Heavens! You're the most unaccountable creature! Hasn't it
occurred to you that you're going to be married--thanks to me?'

'Of course, yes. I'm going to be married--so I am. Going to be married.

I'm awfully grateful to you. Haven't I told you that?'

'You might be going to be hanged by the look of you,' said Torpenhow.

And the next day Torpenhow bade him good-bye and left him to the
loneliness he had so much desired.

CHAPTER XIV

Yet at the last, ere our spearmen had found him,
Yet at the last, ere a sword-thrust could save,
Yet at the last, with his masters around him,
He of the Faith spoke as master to slave;
Yet at the last, tho' the Kafirs had maimed him,
Broken by bondage and wrecked by the reiver,--
Yet at the last, tho' the darkness had claimed him,
He called upon Allah and died a believer.

--Kizzilbashi.

'BEG your pardon, Mr. Heldar, but--but isn't nothin' going to happen?'
said Mr. Beeton.

'No!' Dick had just waked to another morning of blank despair and his
temper was of the shortest.

''Tain't my regular business, o' course, sir; and what I say is, "Mind
your own business and let other people mind theirs;" but just before Mr.

Torpenhow went away he give me to understand, like, that you might be
moving into a house of your own, so to speak--a sort of house with rooms
upstairs and downstairs where y