was on the music hall stage! Fact! Joined up and
was out in France counting tins of plum and
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apple. Huns dropped a stray bomb and he went
home with a flesh wound in the arm. Somehow or
other got into Lady Carrington's hospital." "So that's how they met."
"Fact! Fellow played the wounded hero. Lady
Carrington had no sense and oceans of money.
Old Carrington had been in munitions. She'd been
a widow only six months. This fellow snaps her up
in no time. She wangled him a job at the War Office. Colonel Clapperton! Pah!" he snorted.
"And before the war he was on the music hall
stage," mused Miss Henderson, trying to reconcile
the distinguished gray-haired Colonel Clap-perton
with a red-nosed comedian singing mirth-provoking
songs.
"Fact!" said General Forbes. "Heard it from
old Bassington-ffrench. And he heard it from old
Badger Cotterill who'd got it from Snooks
Parker"
Miss Henderson nodded brightly. "That does
seem to settle it!" she said.
A fleeting smile showed for a minute on the face
of a small man sitting near them. Miss Henderson
noticed the smile. She was observant. It had
shown appreciation of the irony underlying her
last remark--irony which the General never for a
moment suspected.