an epigram.

"I must rub up my acquaintance in that quarter," said Roscorla, "before
I leave again. Fortunately, I have always kept up my club subscription;
and you'll come and dine with me, Sir Percy, won't you, when I get to
town?"

"Are you going to town?" said Trelyon quickly.

"Oh yes, of course."

"When?"

The question was abrupt, and it made Roscorla look at the young man as
he answered. Trelyon seemed to him to be very much harassed about
something or other.

"Well, I suppose in a week or so: I am only home for a holiday, you
know."

"Oh, you'll be here for a week?" said the younger man submissively.
"When do you think of returning to Jamaica?"

"Probably at the beginning of next month. Fancy leaving England in
November--just at the most hideous time of the year--and in a week or
two getting out into summer again, with the most beautiful climate and
foliage and what not all around you! I can tell you a man makes a great
mistake who settles down to a sort of vegetable life anywhere: you don't
catch me at that again."

"There's some old women," observed the general, who was so anxious to
show his profundity that he quite forgot the invidious character of the
comparison, "who are just like trees--as much below the ground as above
it. Isn't that true, eh? They're a deal more at home among the people
they have buried than among those that are alive. I don't say that's
your case, Roscorla. You're comparatively a young man yet: you've got
brisk health. I don't wonder at your liking to knock about. As for you,
young Trelyon, what do you mean to do?"

Harry Trelyon started. "Oh," said he with some confusion, "I have no
immediate plans. Yes, I have: don't you know I have been cramming for
the civil service examinations for first commissions?"

"And what the devil made the War Office go to those civilians?" muttered
the general.

"And if I pull through I shall want all your influence to get me
gazetted to a good regiment. Don't they often shunt you on to the First
or Second West Indians?"

"And you've enough money to back you, too," said the general. "I tell
you what it is, gentlemen, if they abolish the purchase of commissions
in the army--and they're always talking about it--they don't know what
they'll bring about. They'll have two sets of officers in the army--men
with money who like a good mess, and live far beyond their pay, and men
with no money at all, who've got to live on their pay; and how can