feet
and went aft.

The dressing bugle had sounded but he had not heard; the dinner bugle had
sounded and still he had not heard, as he stood at the stern watching the
swirling wash of the slow-moving boat.

"Full moon, too! She was hauled from her bed gibbering in French or
something."

He quoted the words, and crushed the letter savagely in his hands, for
even in the fullness of his joy he remembered Leonie's words, "Terrible
things happen wherever I am--they follow me." But in the greatness of
his love he figuratively shrugged his shoulders, gathered his beloved
into the safe haven of his arms, and closed the moonlit eyes with kisses.

Whilst a jet butterfly fluttered in vain over a very decollete expanse
which covered a heart agitated by rage and disappointment on the boat
deck.

CHAPTER XXV

"And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee."--_The Bible_.

Leonie and her aunt were having tea at the Ladies' Union Club, of which
the latter was almost an original member.

You know the place where, arriving on foot or with the trail of the
omnibus upon you in the shape of a two-penny ticket grasped tightly in
your right hand, you receive a stony stare as welcome from the hall
porter, and one of dead fish glassiness from the rest of the staff.

There is a certain air of geniality diffused around a taxi arrival, but
a _car_!--two or eight cylinder--owned, borrowed, or stolen, well!
there you win in honours, no matter _what_ kind of private address you
camouflage with that of your club.

Having cleared a way across the tobacco-laden atmosphere, through which
can be spied ladies, young and old, inhaling and exhaling with more
vigour than grace, they had ensconced themselves in the seat for two
which lies isolated from the jumble of chairs and couches.

That seat having the advantage of isolation, your conversation does not
gladden the ears of your neighbour nor theirs yours.

You know what that is like--if you don't, well, it's the kind that if
written would read in italics: _Ayah--kitmutgar--pukka--chotar
hazri--syce_, with reference, ultra-distinct and emphatic, to
_Government House_, _Simla_, and my dear old friend, _General
Methuselah_.

Just those little British odds-and-ends which go to the ruling, more or
less, of the land of the peacock. Add to that the general, what shall
I say, touch-and-go attire of the majority of the members. You know
what it is like.

Lace collars over reconstruc