"Well, now, I suppose we ought to go on to the polo," said Colonel Palgrave, putting down his tea-cup, "perhaps we shall lose something good." Mrs. Barwell immediately agreed, hurried into her bedroom, and returned in a second, in a flowery hat, and the party sallied forth on foot. Verona found herself walking beside Mrs. Palgrave; she had a good face and a charmingly sympathetic manner. Verona had heard that the wife of the commanding officer was a most popular lady, and Blanche's tale, that she and the major's wife did not speak, was obviously a fable. Mrs. Palgrave, although but eight-and-thirty years of age, was a deputy parent to all "the boys." She listened to their troubles, and had them to dine on Sundays; she nursed them when they were ill; she wrote to their mothers, and generally kept her eye on them. She was, moreover, a treasure to her husband; managed all the sewing clubs and mothers' meetings, visited hospitals, had never made the slightest effort to marry her sister in the regiment, and was generally respected and beloved. "I've not seen you before," she remarked to Verona. (But she had heard of her.) "And now you have found your way into the station, I hope some day you will come and spend an afternoon with me." "Thank you very much," was the girl's non-committal answer. She did not wish to mix in station society. "I think it is very likely that we have some mutual friends." "Perhaps we have." "Do you act at all?" "No, I prefer to be one of the audience." "Then you will come in and see these theatricals, won't you?" "By-the-way, Lucy," interrupted Colonel Palgrave, hurrying up to join them, "I forgot to tell you that young Fielder has arrived; I daresay he will be at the polo--I'll bring him up and present him to you." "Another boy?" she asked, with a smile. "Well, not exactly, I should say he is six or seven-and-twenty; you know he comes to us from the Guards, with the reputation of a lady-killer." "The Guards," she repeated. "Really!" "I fancy he has been going ahead a bit, and his father, Lord Highstreet, has sent him out to India to us." (Verona lagged behind--surely this intimate sort of conversation was not intended for her ears.) "I see," assented Mrs. Palgrave, "as a sort of punishment. What a compliment to the regiment!" "Well, the exchange has been effected merely with the idea of getting him into another set." "You have seen him, of course?" "Oh, yes, and he has no resemblance to one's preconceived idea of a naughty boy--perfectly self-possessed, cheery, and rather good-looking." "Perhaps he may be an acquisition, after all." By this time they were at the polo ground. Mrs. Palgrave waited a moment for Verona, and said: "My husband has been telling me about a new officer who has just joined, a Captain Fielder. We have some chairs and rugs near the tent--won't you come and sit by me?"