eft her, he had said to himself that hers was
one of the most alluring and fascinating faces he had ever seen; and
he, like Stafford, though in another sphere--that of the Secret
Intelligence Department--had travelled far and wide in the world.
Perfectly beautiful he did not call her, though her face was as near
that rarity as any he had known. He would only have called a woman
beautiful who was tall, and she was almost petite; but that was because
he himself was over-tall, and her smallness seemed to be properly
classed with those who were pretty, not the handsome or the beautiful.
But there was something in her face that haunted him--a wistful,
appealing delicacy, which yet was associated with an instant readiness
of intellect, with a perspicuous judgment and a gift of organization.
And she had eyes of blue which were "meant to drown those who hadn't
life-belts," as he said.

In one way or another he put all this to his fellow officers, and said
that the existence of two such patriots as Byng and Jasmine in one
family was unusual.

"Pretty fairly self-possessed, I should say," said Rigby, the youngest
officer present at mess. "Her husband under repair at Brinkwort's Farm,
in the care of the blue-ribbon nurse of the army, who makes a fellow
well if he looks at her, and she studying organization at the Stay
Awhile with a staff-officer."

The reply of the Staff Officer was quick and cutting enough for any
officers' mess.

"I see by the latest papers from England, that Balfour says we'll
muddle through this war somehow," he said. "He must have known you,
Rigby. With the courage of the damned you carry a fearsome lot of
impedimenta, and you muddle quite adequately. The lady you have
traduced has herself been seriously ill, and that is why she is not at
Brinkwort's Farm. What a malicious mind you've got! Byng would think
so."

"If Rigby had been in your place to-day," interposed a gruff major,
"the lady would surely have had a relapse. Convalescence is no time for
teaching the rudiments of human intercourse."

Pale and angry, Rigby, who was half Scotch and correspondingly
self-satisfied, rejoined stubbornly: "I know what I know. They haven't
met since she came up from Durban. Sandlip told me that--"

The Staff Officer broke the sentence. "What Sandlip told you is what
Nancy would tell Polly and Polly would tell the cook--and then Rigby
would know. But statement number one is an Ananiasism, for Byng saw his
wife at