No. Is it kind? No. Is it
_FUNNY_? Yes. And out it comes."

"Be that as it may," said the ladylike creature. (One could see she was
a Real Lady even through the sheet. Obviously she read the _Morning
Post_ daily.) "Be that as it may, perhaps you can help me in one little
matter which is intriguing me slightly even at this solemn moment. Do
you suppose the sheep will be allowed to hear the trial of the goats, or
will the court be cleared? I must say I should be so interested to hear
the defence of the late churchwarden who eloped with----"

"Ah, please, please," said Lady Arabel, "don't talk in that dretful way.
Don't let your mind dwell on the worst. I assure you that you will be
all right."

"Of course I shall be all right, as you put it," said the elderly lady,
coldly drawing herself up. "Everybody can be my witness that I have kept
my candle burning in my small corner----"

"Good gracious," shrieked the kittenish mother. "A candle burning
to-night. And probably unshaded. Don't you know that those fiends in the
sky are always on the watch for the slightest illumination?"

"Fiends in the sky!" exclaimed the sheeted lady. "Do you mean to say
they are abroad even at this solemn moment?"

"Oh, don't talk such rot," implored the hard flapper. "Who the dickens
do you suppose was responsible for that crash?"

"Responsible for the crash!" said the other, whose tones were becoming
more and more alive with exclamation marks. "Is then the solemn work of
summoning us entrusted to the minions of the Evil One?"

A series of crashes interrupted her, the work of the adjacent gun. The
earth shook, and each report was followed by the curious ethereal wail
of shells on their way.

"What, again?" exclaimed Lady Arabel's sheeted neighbour. "I should have
thought one would have been ample. But still, one cannot be too careful,
and some people are heavy sleepers. I heard the first myself without any
possibility of mistake, and rose at once, though the slab lay heavy on
my chest----"

"Most unwise," said Lady Arabel, "to touch that sort of thing late at
night. I always have a little Benger myself."

Sarah Brown happened to look at Richard. His eyes were shut, but he was
smiling very broadly with tight lips, and his face was turned towards
the ceiling. His fingers were very tense and busy on his lap, as though
he were still fidgeting with magic. But her study of him was interrupted
by the loud denouncing voice of the very venerab