His Majesty Baby and Some Common People — John Shaqi
His Majesty Baby and Some Common PeopleMaclaren, Ian
General
His Majesty Baby and Some Common People
Maclaren, Ian
Fiction; Short stories
Bailed on frontier last year.” Is much ashamed of this confidence, and
we all look unconscious. What a fine, simple old fellow he is!
“Saved up, has he”--the Colonel is speaking to the mother--“to give Baby
and you a week at Ramsgate?... he's the right sort, your husband... it's
for Baby, not for you, to get him some fol-de-rol, you know... he's done
a lot of good to a crusty old chap.”... The conductor has taken in the
scene with huge delight, and closes it just at the right point. “Your
club, General; just wait till the'bus stops.... Can ye get near the
kerb, Bill? Now, that's right, take care, sir, plenty of time... Oh,
that was nothing, might'ave seen you sooner... thank ye, I do smoke at a
time... Mornin', General; all right, Bill.” The Colonel was standing
on the broad top step of the “Veteran's” smiling and waving his hand;
the'bus waved back, and the conductor touched his cap. “A gentleman
every inch; cads ain't mide that wy,” and Baby danced for sheer
Christian joy, since there is no victory like Love.
II.--NEWS OF A FAMOUS VICTORY
HE had been talking that morning at the Office of the siege of
Ladysmith, for six relatives of the family were at the front, three
with Sir George White in the besieged place, and three with Sir Redvers
Buller, fighting for their deliverance. Word had come to the house the
night before that Ladysmith might be relieved any hour, and every
one knew that unless help came speedily, the garrison would have to
surrender. Duty took me to Cambridge that day, and I had gone upstairs
to get ready, and coming down again I heard a shout in the hall as
if something had happened, but it did not occur to me what it was. My
hostess was speaking excitedly somewhere, and I could not catch what she
was saying. Servants had rushed out from bedrooms and other places, and
were standing on the breakfast-table in a house near the War landings.
As I reached the hall the butler, a most stately personage, broke forth
from his quarters and rushed past me carrying his coat on his arm, and
then in his shirt sleeves, having forgotten to put on his coat, and
without a hat--he will likely deny this, but he was a spectacle for gods
and men--he ran, yes, he who was intended by nature to be an archbishop,
ran across the square. Then I understood, and turned to a footman, who
looked as if he would like to follow the butler.
“Ladysmith,” was all I said.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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