"Here, I'm very sorry, Alleyne. Miss Alleyne, I don't know what sort of a host you'll think me for being so late," cried Sir John, bustling in. "I hope Glynne has been playing my part well." "Admirably, Sir John," replied Alleyne. "We have been talking upon my favourite topic, and the time soon glides by when one is engaged upon questions regarding the planets." "But I say, you know, Mr Alleyne," said Rolph, who, with all the confidence of one in his own house and proprietary rights over the lady, came and seated himself upon the elbow of the easy-chair in which Glynne reclined, and laid his arm behind her on the back, "I want to know what's the good of a fellow sacrificing his health, and shutting himself up from society, for the study of these abstruse scientific matters. 'Pon my word, I can't see what difference it makes to us whether Jupiter has got one moon, or ten moons, or a hundred. He's such a precious long way off." Glynne looked up at him with a good-humoured air of pain, but only to turn back and listen to Alleyne. "It requires study, Captain Rolph," he said thoughtfully, "and time to appreciate the value of the results achieved in astronomy. Perhaps we have nothing to show that is of direct utility to man, but everything in nature is so grand--there is so much to be learned, that, for my part, I wonder why everybody does not thirst for knowledge." "Yes," said Glynne, thoughtfully, and below her breath. "Oh, we all dabble in science, more or less," said Rolph, glancing at Sir John with a look that seemed to say, "You see how I'll trot him out." "Here's the major goes in for toadstools, and Sir John for big muttons and portly pigs." "And Captain Rolph for exhibitions of endurance, to prove that a man is stronger than a horse," said the major, drily. "Yes, and not a bad thing, either, eh, Sir John?" "Oh, every man to his taste," said the host; "but I believe in a man feeding himself up, and not starving himself down." "Oilcake and turnips, eh?" "Yes, both good things in their way, but I like the chemical components to have taken other forms, Rob, my boy; good Highland Scots beef and Southdown mutton." "I hope you will be able to indulge in a good dinner, Rolph?" said the major, looking at the young officer as if he amused him. "Trust me for that, major," replied the young man loudly. "I'm not bad at table." "I thought, perhaps," said the major sarcastically, "that you might be in training, and forbidden to eat anything but raw steak and dry biscuit." "Oh, dear, no," said Rolph seriously. "Quite free now, major, quite free." "That's a blessing," muttered Sir John, who looked annoyed and fidgety. "Hah, dinner at last." "Walking makes me hungry and impatient, Miss Alleyne. Come along, you are my property. First lady."