"Mary will say 'not at home.'" "But he has spotted us. Do go and get rid of him." "Such an old friend, dear." "We haven't time for old fossils. Tell him to go and bury himself." And (in my sensitive fancy) she had delivered the import of the message. I had gathered that my visit was ill-timed. I was preparing to cut it short, when Leonard himself came up and whisked me against my will to the tea-table. If my hypothesis were correct he had evidently changed his mind as to the desirability of getting rid, in so summary a fashion, of what he may have considered to be an impertinent and malicious little factor in Wellingsford gossip. At any rate, if he was playing a part, he played it very well. It was not in the power of man to be more cordial and gracious. He gave me a vivid account of the campaign. He had been through everything, the retreat from Mons, the Battle of the Aisne, the great rush north, and the Battle of Neuve Chapelle on the 17th of March. I listened, fascinated, to his tale, which he told with a true soldier's impersonal modesty. "I was glad," said I, after a while, "to see you twice mentioned in dispatches." Mrs. Boyce turned on me triumphantly. "He is going to get his D. S. O." "By Jove!" said I. Leonard laughed, threw one gaitered leg over the other and held up his hands at her. "Oh, you feminine person!" He smiled at me. "I told my dear old mother as a dead and solemn secret." "But it will be gazetted in a few days, dear." "One can never be absolutely sure of these things until they're in black and white. A pretty ass I'd look if there was a hitch--say through some fool of a copying clerk--and I didn't get it after all. It's only dear, silly understanding things like mothers that would understand. Other people wouldn't. Don't you think I'm right, Meredyth?" Of course he was. I have known, in my time, of many disappointments. It is not every recommendation for honours that becomes effective. I congratulated him, however, and swore to secrecy. "It's all luck," said he. "Just because a man happens to be spotted. If my regiment got its deserts, every Jack man would walk about in a suit of armour made of Victoria Crosses. Give me some more tea, mother." "The thing I shall never understand, dear," she said, artlessly, looking up at him, while she handed him his cup, "is when you see a lot of murderous Germans rushing at you with guns and shells and bayonets, how you are not afraid." He threw back his head and laughed in his debonair fashion; but I watched him narrowly and I saw the corners of his mouth twitch for the infinitesimal fraction of a second. "Oh, sometimes we're in an awful funk, I assure you," he replied gaily. "Ask Meredyth." "We may be," said I, "but we daren't shew it--I'm speaking of officers. If an officer funks he's generally responsible for the death of goodness knows how many men. And if the men funk they're liable to be shot for cowardice in the face of the enemy."