"A like him better than his opinions," he grinned.
"You come along and have a word with him," urged the Colonel.
Joe shook a wary head.
"He's busy with Church and State," he said, nodding down the hall. "He don't need Labour."
Then Ruth chimed in almost shrilly for once.
"There's young Alf shook hands with him!"
"Always shovin of issalf!" muttered Ernie sourly. "He and Reverend Spink."
The old Field-Marshal was now coming slowly down the hall with a word here and a handshake there. Church and State, as Joe had truly said, were pressing him. Mrs. Trupp, indeed, and Mrs. Lewknor were fighting a heavy rearguard action against the Archdeacon and Stanley Bessemere and his cohorts, to cover the old soldier's retirement.
As the column drifted past Ernie and Ruth the Colonel stopped.
"An old Hammer-man, sir," he said. "And the mother of future Hammer-men."