rned into his pocket.

"Come on!" he said to his companion abruptly.

"Come vere? Vat is it?"

"Come on!" roared the major irascibly. "What d'ye want to stand asking
questions for? Put on your hat and come."

The major had retained the cab at the door, and the two jumped into it.
"Drive to Verdi's Restaurant," he said to the driver.

When they arrived at that aristocratic and expensive establishment, the
soldier ordered the best dinner for two that money could procure.
"Have it riddy in two hours sharp," he said to the manager. "None of
your half-and-half wines, mind! We want the rale thing, and, be ged! we
can tell the difference!"

Having left the manager much impressed, the two friends set out for a
ready-made clothing establishment. "I won't come in," the major said,
slipping ten sovereigns into Von Baumser's hand. "Just you go in and
till them ye want the best suit o' clothes they can give you. They've a
good seliction there, I know."

"Gott in Himmel!" cried the amazed German. "But, my dear vriend, you
cannot vait in the street. Come in mit me."

"No, I'll wait," the old soldier answered. "They might think I was
paying for the clothes if I came in."

"Well, but so you--"

"Eh, would ye?" roared the major, raising his cane, and Von Baumser
disappeared precipitately into the shop.

When he emerged once more at the end of twenty minutes, he was attired
in an elegant and close-fitting suit of heather tweed. The pair then
made successive visits to a shoe-maker, a hatter, and a draper, with the
result that Von Baumser developed patent leather boots, a jaunty brown
hat, and a pair of light yellow gloves. By the end of their walk there
seemed nothing left of the original Von Baumser except a tawny beard,
and an expression of hopeless and overpowering astonishment.

Having effected this transformation, the friends retraced their steps to
Verdi's and did full justice to the spread awaiting them, after which
the old soldier won the heart of the establishment by bestowing largess
upon every one who came in his way. As to the further adventures of
these two Bohemians, it would be as well perhaps to draw a veil over
them. Suffice it that, about two in the morning, the worthy Mrs.
Robins was awakened by a stentorian voice in the street below demanding
to know "Was ist das Deutsche Vaterland?"--a somewhat vexed question
which the owner of the said voice was propounding to the solitary
lamp-post of Ke