Mrs. G. (Within.) What absurd name will you give him next? Why do you call him that?
Capt. M. Isn"t he our Inspector-General of Cavalry? Doesn"t he come down in his seventeen-two perambulator every morning the Pink Hussars parade?
Don"t wriggle, Brigadier. Give us your private opinion on the way the third squadron went past. "Trifle ragged, weren"t they?
Capt. G. A bigger set of tailors than the new draft I don"t wish to see.
They"ve given me more than my fair share--knocking the squadron out of shape. It"s sickening!
Capt. M. When you"re in command, you"ll do better, young "un. Can"tyou walk yet? Grip my finger and try. (To G.) "Twon"t hurt his hocks, will it?
Capt. G. Oh, no. Don"t let him flop, though, or he"ll lick all the blacking off your boots.
Mrs. G. (Within.) Who"s destroying my son"s character?
Capt. M. And my G.o.dson"s. I"m ashamed of you, Gaddy. Punch your father in the eye, Jack! Don"t you stand it! Hit him again!
Capt. G. (Sotto voce.) Put The Butcha down and come to the end of the veranda. I"d rather the Wife didn"t hear--just now.
Capt. M. You look awf"ly serious. Anything wrong?
Capt. G. "Depends on your view entirely. I say, Jack, you won"t think more hardly of me than you can help, will you? Come further this way.--The fact of the matter is, that I"ve made up my mind--at least I"m thinking seriously of--cutting the Service.
Capt. M. Hwhatt?
Capt. G. Don"t shout. I"m going to send in my papers.
Capt. M. You! Are you mad?
Capt. G. No--only married.
Capt. M. Look here! What"s the meaning of it all? You never intend to leave us. You can"t. Isn"t the best squadron of the best regiment of the best cavalry in all the world good enough for you?
Capt. G. (Jerking his head over his shoulder.) She doesn"t seem to thrive in this G.o.d-forsaken country, and there"s The Butcha to be considered and all that, you know.
Capt. M. Does she say that she doesn"t like India?
Capt. G. That"s the worst of it. She won"t for fear of leaving me.
Capt. M. What are the Hills made for?
Capt. G. Not for my wife, at any rate.
Capt. M. You know too much, Gaddy, and--I don"t like you any the better for it!
Capt. G. Never mind that. She wants England, and The Butcha would be all the better for it. I"m going to chuck. You don"t understand.
Capt. M. (Hotly.) I understand this!--One hundred and thirty-seven new horse to be licked into shape somehow before Luck comes round again; a hairy-heeled draft who"ll give more trouble than the horses; a camp next cold weather for a certainty; ourselves the first on the roster; the Russian shindy ready to come to a head at five minutes" notice, and you, the best of us all, backing out of it all! Think a little, Gaddy. You won"t do it.
Capt. G. Hang it, a man has some duties toward his family, I suppose.
Capt. M. I remember a man, though, who told me, the night after Amdheran, when we were picketed under Jagai, and he"d left his sword--by the way, did you ever pay Ranken for that sword?--in an Utmanzai"s head--that man told me that he"d stick by me and the Pinks as long as he lived. I don"t blame him for not sticking by me--I"m not much of a man--but I do blame him for not sticking by the Pink Hussars.
Capt. G. (Uneasily.) We were little more than boys then. Can"t you see, Jack, how things stand? "Tisn"t as if we were serving for our bread.
We"ve all of us, more or less, got the filthy lucre. I"m luckier than some, perhaps. There"s no call for me to serve on.
Capt. M. None in the world for you or for us, except the Regimental. If you don"t choose to answer to that, of course--
Capt. G. Don"t be too hard on a man. You know that a lot of us only take up the thing for a few years and then go back to Town and catch on with the rest.
Capt. M. Not lots, and they aren"t some of Us.
Capt. G. And then there are one"s affairs at Home to be considered--my place and the rents, and all that. I don"t suppose my father can last much longer, and that means the t.i.tle, and so on.
Capt. M. "Fraid you won"t be entered in the Stud Book correctly unless you go Home? Take six months, then, and come out in October. If I could slay off a brother or two, I s"pose I should be a Marquis of sorts.
Any fool can be that; but it needs men, Gaddy--men like you--to lead flanking squadrons properly. Don"t you delude yourself into the belief that you"re going Home to take your place and prance about among pink-nosed Kabuli dowagers. You aren"t built that way. I know better.
Capt. G. A man has a right to live his life as happily as he can. You aren"t married.
Capt. M. No--praise be to Providence and the one or two women who have had the good sense to jawab me.
Capt. G. Then you don"t know what it is to go into your own room and see your wife"s head on the pillow, and when everything else is safe and the house shut up for the night, to wonder whether the roof-beams won"t give and kill her.
Capt. M. (Aside.) Revelations first and second! (Aloud.) So-o! I knew a man who got squiffy at our Mess once and confided to me that he never helped his wife on to her horse without praying that she"d break her neck before she came back. All husbands aren"t alike, you see.
Capt. G. What on earth has that to do with my case? The man must ha"
been mad, or his wife as bad as they make "em.
Capt. M. (Aside.) "No fault of yours if either weren"t all you say.
You"ve forgotten the time when you were insane about the Herriott woman.
You always were a good hand at forgetting. (Aloud.) Not more mad than men who go to the other extreme. Be reasonable, Gaddy. Your roof-beams are sound enough.
Capt. G. That was only a way of speaking. I"ve been uneasy and worried about the Wife ever since that awful business three years ago--when--I nearly lost her. Can you wonder?
Capt. M. Oh, a sh.e.l.l never falls twice in the same place. You"ve paid your toll to misfortune--why should your Wife be picked out more than anybody else"s?
Capt. G. I can talk just as reasonably as you can, but you don"t understand--you don"t understand. And then there"s The Butcha. Deuce knows where the Ayah takes him to sit in the evening! He has a bit of a cough. Haven"t you noticed it?
Capt. M. Bosh! The Brigadier"s jumping out of his skin with pure condition. He"s got a muzzle like a rose-leaf and the chest of a two-year-old. What"s demoralized you?
Capt. G. Funk. That"s the long and the short of it. Funk!
Capt. M. But what is there to funk?
Capt. G. Everything. It"s ghastly.
Capt. M. Ah! I see. You don"t want to fight, And by Jingo when we do, You"ve got the kid, you"ve got the Wife, You"ve got the money, too.
That"s about the case, eh?
Capt. G. I suppose that"s it. But it"s not for myself. It"s because of them. At least I think it is.