e Ensign"--he threw his head back in the direction of the
next room--"is the person to apply to. She's in command here. Captain
Filbert's only under her."

"Indeed?" said Lindsay. "Thanks."

"It ain't like it is in the Queen's army," Harris volunteered, still
searching Lindsay's vicinity for a point upon which his eyes could
permanently rest, "where, if you remember, Ensigns are the smallest
officer we have."

"The commission is, I think, abolished," replied Lindsay, governing a
deep and irritated frown.

"Maybe so. This Army don't pretend to pattern very close on the
other--not in discipline anyhow," said Mr. Harris with ambiguity. "But
you'll find Ensign Sand very willing to do anything she can for you.
She's a hard-working officer."

A sharp wail smote the air from a point close to the lath and canvas
partition, on the other side, followed by hasty hushings and steps in
the opposite direction. It enabled Lindsay to observe that Mrs. Sand
seemed at present to be sufficiently engaged, at which Mr. Harris
shifted one heavy limb over the other, and lapsed into silence, looking
sternly at an advertisement. The air was full of their mutual annoyance,
although Duff tried to feel amused. They were raging as primitively,
under the red flannel shirt and the tan-coloured waistcoat with white
silk spots, as two cave-men on an Early British coast; their only
sophistication lay in Harris's newspaper and Lindsay's idea that he
ought to find this person humorous. Then Laura came back and resolved
the situation.

"Here it is," she said, handing the volume to Mr. Harris; "we have all
enjoyed it. Thank you very much." There was in it the oddest mixture of
the supreme feminine and the superior officer. Harris, as he took the
book, had no alternative.

"Good-evening, then, Captain," said he, and went, stumbling at the door.

"Mr. Harris," said Laura equably, "found salvation about a month ago. He
is a very steady young man--foreman in one of the carriage works here.
He is now struggling with the tobacco habit, and he often drops in in
the evening."

"He seems to be a--a member of the corps," said Lindsay.

"He would be, only for the carriage works. He says he doesn't find
himself strong enough in grace to give up his situation yet. But he
wears the uniform at the meetings to show his sympathy, and the Ensign
doesn't think there's any objection."

Laura was sitting straight up in one of the cheap little chairs, her
sari dra