"Have you got any medals--Victoria Crosses and things?" she asked, with a view to adding point to her account of the interview, and the General gave a loud guffaw of amusement. "A selection of Victoria Crosses! Eh, what? No, I am sorry to say I have not; only one or two medals, such as any man might possess who has served the same number of years. Where are they? In a drawer in my bedroom, of course! You don't expect me to hang them up on the wall, do you?" "Yes, I do. I should! Where everyone would see and ask questions about them. I'd wear them, too, whenever I possibly could!" cried Jill, unabashed, and once more the General shook his head and exclaimed-- "Woman, woman!" in a tone of tragic significance. When the meal was over, however, he yielded to Jack's entreaties, and escorted his visitors into the adjoining bedroom, where various warlike trophies reposed with the medals in the drawers of an old cabinet. The boy's interest was intense, but Jill soon wearied and turned to inspect the general furnishing of the room. It was very bare and plain--a narrow camp bed, a few chairs, and a dressing-table--bare of everything but the absolute necessities of toilet, and those of the simplest description. One saw the old soldier in every arrangement, but it was on the opposite corner of the room that Jill's eyes rested with the greatest astonishment. On the wall hung a picture which she did not remember having seen before, representing a group of Eastern beggars, and in the foreground the figure of Christ with a beautiful, earnest face--a _young_ face, not the worn and haggard representation so often seen--talking to one whose handsome robes showed him to be a person of position, who stood with hanging head and pained, disappointed expression. Beneath the picture stood a kneeling-chair with a pile of devotional books on the ledge. The whole effect was that of a quiet corner or "closet," as the Apostle calls it, and Jill was still staring at it with distended eyes when the General turned round and discovered her. "You appear to be astonished by the sight of my corner! Why?" he inquired, and a more observant listener might have discovered a certain tension and anxiety in his tone, but Jill noticed nothing, and answered with the brutal candour of youth-- "I--I did not think you were--like that!" "Ah! Why not? Because I lost my temper, and railed at you the other day. Eh, what?"