A Knight on Wheels

ven was

hilip took a big breath

was talking to a little girl

genial response. "What

ilip, a little

oseph l

. "Why was I

ed, in his del

said, "sitting on a gate. She smiled at me, and you

seph ass

at you said. I explained that you knew all women were dangerous, and w

eph smile

did she say to t

ould ask her mo

Joseph

e commented. "And w

said-" Phili

id Uncle Jo

ht that all women should be avoided was know

lip eyed him curiously. There was a change in his appearance. He seemed to have grown older during

d his back, and was gazing into the glowing fire, with his head

ncle Jose

e you, boy?

n," said

ilence. Then Uncle

now. Your friend's mother was right, P

ase," sai

seph tur

e asked

with characteri

me to keep away from all women, like what you tol

ing to find it

ue cotton frock and a pa

the notion that woman is man's better half and guiding angel, or any sentimental, insidious nonsense of that kind, you are doomed.

up quickly. It was the first time that Uncl

later on, but that is another story. Perhaps the other man deserved it,

lip. "'The Idyl

mber King

beginning dimly

mother was

nt for a while.

u say we must a

as a little subaltern, and I worshipped it for sixteen years. In course of time they made me adjutant, which cures most men of such predilections, but it only made me feel as proud as a hen with eight hundred chickens. Then, just as I got my

n had any great experience of women. All my time had been lavished on the regiment. So I laboured under the delusion that if a man loved a woman, his proper cours

e done, Uncle Joseph?"

thing, she told me to get it for her, and I did so gladly, for I felt that all these little trifles were gradually binding us together. I had not quite grasped a woman's idea of playing the game in those days, you see. I thought all this aloofness of hers was due to a young girl's reserve of character, and that, being too shy and timid to tell me in so many words that she cared for me, she was accepting all my devotion and my little offerings purposely and deliberately, in order to show me that, although she could not bring herself to say the word at present, she meant to do the square thing in the end. I loved her for that, and tried to be patient. But once, when I, presuming o

dance, perhaps to have it cut in the end; to dash off parade and change out of uniform and gallop away to a riding appointment, perhaps to find that she had forgotten all about it; to be compelled to laugh and look amused when she said uncharitable thin

would shake down presently. When she was a little older and wiser, she would realise what humiliation she had often heaped upon me, and she would come and say

ld think of, and then sat down and unfolded to her all my dreams and visions for the future. I told her how proud the regiment would be of her, and what a splendid regiment we would make of it between us. I confessed to her, just like a penitent child, that I had been neglecting the regim

me-interrupted me. She said,

hing else. In future I forbid you to mention it in my pres

bout the room during this narration,

his drink, and the air he breathes; and the woman who marries him must be prepared to stand by his side and see him through it, and not to hang round his neck and get between him and what he has to do. She must sympathise with him when things go wrong, and share his satisfaction when they come right again. If she grows jealous of his work and tries to detach him from i

d at my subalterns, because some of them were hard up and could not keep polo ponies. She called them 'a fusty lot,'-half of them had seen active service before they were twenty-one,-and compared them unfavourably with the Viceroy's Staff. She appeared to regard my affection for them as a sort of slight to herself. She looked down on my splendid little Gurkhas, and said it was a pity I could not get command of a whit

. I realised, once and for all, that a man's duty comes first in this world, and straightway I saw life clearly and as a whole onc

yes on her again. In the second place, I was determined to make it plain that she must not attempt to come between me and the regiment again. It was a delicate problem

ped, and the light of bat

" asked Philip, apprehensively.

ghed. It was not

ight. When I got to Simla I discovered that she had

back into his

er, and then-!... People told me he wasn't a bad fellow. A bit of a boor, but a good sort on the whole. He was heir to

happened. In the old days I had loved the regiment because it was my regiment: latterly I had loved it because it was her regiment, and I wanted to make it a credit to her. Now that she was gone-cui bono? But I fought on-I would not give in. I was

ne, only more shameful. He asked me to take charge of you. Then I saw light: my duty lay plain ahead of me. I would go home and devote the rest of my l

into his armchair, and relit the ashes o

silent for a long t

y pretty, Un

creature I have ever seen,

red on one m

e aliv

shrugged hi

at the social history of the past ten years is a blank to me. I never have

ephew. A grim smile played a

quired, "have I made thi

p flu

he muttered. But h

ade it any easier for you to relinquish your acqu

truculent logic of his uncle and the gentle, chivalrous spirit of his fat

I'm s

f. Listen! You will drop your acquaintance with this little girl, and refrain from making any other

a soldier's house, and when Uncle Joseph spoke in his orderl

eep. He had pledged his knightly word to keep tryst with a lady on Ham