For twopence I'd knock your ugly head off this present
minute."
Whereupon Gedge apparently wilted before the indignant eye of
Sergeant Marigold and faded away down the High Street.
All this in itself seemed very trivial, but for the past year the
attitude of Gedge had been mysterious. Could it be possible that
Gedge thought himself the sole repository of the secret which
Boyce had so desperately confided to me? But when had the life of
Gedge and the military life of Leonard Boyce crossed? It was
puzzling.
Well, to tell the truth, I thought no more about the matter. The
glow of Mrs. Boyce's happiness remained with me all the evening.
Rarely had I seen her so animated, so forgetful of her own
ailments. She had taken the rosiest view of Leonard's physical
condition and sunned herself in the honour conferred on him by the
King. I had never spent a pleasanter afternoon at her house. We
had comfortably criticised our neighbours, and, laudatores
temporis acti, had extolled the days of our youth. I went to bed
as well pleased with life as a man can be in this convulsion of
the world.
The next morning she sent me a letter to read. It was written at
Boyce's dictation.
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