gly enough:--

"Dearest mother,
I'm so sorry--"

But here he stopped, for the memory of his father's severity re-aroused
his indignation, and he felt some doubt as to whether he really was
sorry. Then, under the impulse of this doubt, he wrote a long letter,
in imagination, in which he defended his conduct pretty warmly, on the
ground that he had been driven to it.

"Driven to what?" asked Something within him. "To the course which I
have taken and am now defending," replied Something-else within him
hotly.

"Then the course was a wrong one, else you wouldn't have to defend it!"
rejoined the first Something.

"Well--yes--n-no, it wasn't," returned the second Something doggedly.

Before this internal dispute could be carried further, Miles was aroused
by a sudden burst of noisy voices, as if a lunatic asylum had been let
loose into the hall below. Rising quickly, he hurried down with his
studious comrades to see what it could be all about.

"It's only another troop-ship come in, and they've all come up here
without giving us warning to get ready," said Tufnell, as he bustled
about, endeavouring to introduce order into what appeared to Miles to be
the reproduction of Babel, _minus_ the bricks.

The fact was that a troop-ship having arrived rather suddenly, a
sergeant had driven up in hot haste from the docks to make arrangements
for the reception of the soldiers' wives and children!

"Look sharp!" he cried, on entering the hall abruptly; "sixteen families
are on their way to you."

"All right; we can take 'em in," was the prompt reply; and orders were
given to set the food-producing machinery of the establishment instantly
in motion. But almost before the preparation had fairly begun, the
advance-guard of the army, largely composed of infantry, burst upon them
like a thunder-clap, and continued to pour in like a torrent. There
were men shouting, women chattering, tired children whining, and excited
children laughing; babies yelling or crowing miscellaneously; parrots
screaming; people running up and down stairs in search of dormitories;
plates and cups clattering at the bar, as the overwhelmed barmaids did
their best to appease the impatient and supply the hungry; while the
rumbling of control-wagons bringing up the baggage formed a sort of bass
accompaniment to the concert.

"You see, it varies with us a good deal," remarked Brown to Miles,
during a lucid interval, "Sometimes we are almost empty, a