Flattering were the greetings on every side as he stood amid the circle of Hussars, Lancers, Artillery, and others, neither perhaps the handsomest nor the tallest amid that merry and handsome group, but looking a soldier every inch in his somewhat frayed and faded fighting kit, which had seen service enough a short time before. 'Here comes Mostyn of ours,' said Wilton, as a very devil-may-care-looking young fellow, in the new khakee uniform, with a field-glass slung over his shoulder, came up. 'How goes it, Dick?--heard you had committed matrimony.' 'Not such a fool, Wilton.' 'We heard you were rather gone with that elderly party at Dover--the lass with all the rupees,' he added in a would-be _sotto voce_. 'On the War Office principle that an old girl makes a young widow? No, Wilton, my boy,' said Mostyn as he lit a cigarette, 'I leave these little lollies for such as you. Her rupees were all moonshine, and her _poudre de riz_ was a little too plain; but I shouldn't like to have a wife who pays her milliner's bills out of her winnings at Ascot.' 'Ah, Lindsay,' said an officer of another corps who had just marched his little detachment on board, and gave Roland, familiarly, a slap on the shoulder, 'how are you--going out again to the land of the Pyramids? Just keep your eye on my fellows for a minute, will you, while I get some tiffin below--hungry as a hawk--tore through London to reach the Anglesea Barracks to-day; had only time to get a glass of sherry and a caviare sandwich at the Rag, then to get goggles and gloves, etc., in Regent Street--ta-ta--will be on deck in a minute.' The old familiar rattling society was delightful again, even with its rather exaggerated gaiety and banter, and all about him were so heedless, so happy, and full of the highest spirits, that it was impossible not to feel the contagion. The bustle, though orderly, was incredible, and the shipment of stores of all kinds seemed endless, including ammunition, carts and waggons, draught and battery horses, with thousands upon thousands of rounds of Martini-Henry ball-cartridges, and innumerable rounds of filled shells for thirteen and sixteen-pounder guns. As senior officer of the mixed command going out, Roland certainly found that he had work cut out for him just then, and no time for farther regretting or thinking of the past, amid all the details consequent on embarkation for foreign service.