"S.i.g.h.t." I felt pretty sure about this. He smote his forehead.
"That is how Miss Plinlimmon taught me," I urged almost defiantly.
"I beg your pardon—'Plinlimmon,' did you say? An unusual name. Do you indeed know a Miss Plinlimmon?"
"It is the name of my dearest friend, sir."
"Most singular! You cannot tell me, I dare say, if she happens to be related to my old friend Arthur Plinlimmon?"
"She is his sister."
"This is most interesting. I remember her, then, as a girl. You must know that Arthur Plinlimmon and I were comrades in the old Fourth Regiment, and dear friends—are dear friends yet, I trust, although time and circumstances have separated us. His sister used to keep house for him before his marriage. A most estimable person! And pray where did you make her acquaintance?"
"In the hospital, sir."
"The hospital? Not an eleemosynary institution for the diseased, I hope?"
I did not know what this meant. "It's a place for foundlings, sir," I answered.