k off
that engagement for nothing at all--simply to gratify Mrs. Reiver, who,
in return, would keep him at her feet and in her service just so long
as she found it worth her while. She said she knew the signs of these
things. If she did not, no one else could.

Then she went forth to capture Pluffles under the guns of the enemy;
just as Mrs. Cusack-Bremmil carried away Bremmil under Mrs. Hauksbee's
eyes.

This particular engagement lasted seven weeks--we called it the Seven
Weeks' War--and was fought out inch by inch on both sides. A detailed
account would fill a book, and would be incomplete then. Any one who
knows about these things can fit in the details for himself. It was
a superb fight--there will never be another like it as long as Jakko
stands--and Pluffles was the prize of victory. People said shameful
things about Mrs. Hauksbee. They did not know what she was playing
for. Mrs. Reiver fought, partly because Pluffles was useful to her, but
mainly because she hated Mrs. Hauksbee, and the matter was a trial of
strength between them. No one knows what Pluffles thought. He had not
many ideas at the best of times, and the few he possessed made him
conceited. Mrs. Hauksbee said:--"The boy must be caught; and the only
way of catching him is by treating him well."

So she treated him as a man of the world and of experience so long as
the issue was doubtful. Little by little, Pluffles fell away from his
old allegiance and came over to the enemy, by whom he was made much of.
He was never sent on out-post duty after 'rickshaws any more, nor was
he given dances which never came off, nor were the drains on his
purse continued. Mrs. Hauksbee held him on the snaffle; and after his
treatment at Mrs. Reiver's hands, he appreciated the change.

Mrs. Reiver had broken him of talking about himself, and made him
talk about her own merits. Mrs. Hauksbee acted otherwise, and won
his confidence, till he mentioned his engagement to the girl at Home,
speaking of it in a high and mighty way as a "piece of boyish folly."
This was when he was taking tea with her one afternoon, and discoursing
in what he considered a gay and fascinating style. Mrs. Hauksbee had
seen an earlier generation of his stamp bud and blossom, and decay into
fat Captains and tubby Majors.

At a moderate estimate there were about three and twenty sides to that
lady's character. Some men say more. She began to talk to Pluffles after
the manner of a mother, and as