upon him, and he sauntered towards the shrubbery.

Voices and laughter came to him from the cottage. He pushed through
the shrubs and found himself near a window; and, peeping through,
received a severe shock to his well-trained nerves. Norah, enveloped
in a huge apron, was energetically polishing the kitchen tins; the
boys, in their shirt-sleeves, were equally busy, Wally scrubbing the
sink with Monkey soap, and Jim blackleading the stove. It was very
clear that work was no new thing to any of the trio. Allenby gasped
with horror.

"Officers, too!" he ejaculated. "What's the world coming to, I
wonder!" He hesitated a moment, and then walked round to the back
door.

"May I come in, please, miss?"

"Oh, come in, Allenby," Norah said, a little confused. "We're busy,
you see. Did you want anything?"

"No, miss, thank you. But really, miss--I could 'ave got a woman from
the village for you, to do all this. Or Sarah."

"Sarah has quite enough to do," said Norah.

"Indeed, Sarah's not killed with work," said that damsel's uncle. "I
don't like to see you soilin' your 'ands, miss. Nor the gentlemen."

"The gentlemen are all right," said Wally cheerfully. "Look at this
sink, now, Allenby; did you ever see anything better?"

"It's--it's not right," murmured Allenby unhappily. He threw off his
black coat suddenly, and advanced upon Jim. "If you please, sir, I'll
finish that stove."

"That you won't," said Jim. "Thanks all the same, Allenby, but I'm
getting used to it now." He laughed. "Besides, don't you forget that
you're a butler?"

"I can't forget that you're an officer, sir," said Allenby,
wretchedly. "It's not right: think of the regiment. And Miss Norah.
Won't you let me 'elp sir?"

"You can clean the paint, Allenby," said Norah, taking pity on his
distressed face. "But there's really no need to keep you."

"If you'd only not mind telling any of them at the 'ouse what I was
doing," said the butler anxiously. "It 'ud undermine me position.
There's that Miss de Lisle, now--she looks down on everybody enough
without knowin' I was doin' any job like this."

"She shall never know," said Jim tragically, waving a blacklead brush.
"Now I'm off to do the dining-room grate. If you're deadly anxious to
work, Allenby, you could wash this floor--couldn't he, Norah?"

"Thanks very much, sir," said Allenby gratefully, "I'll leave this
place all right--just shut the door, sir, and don't you bother