"I would rather scrub floors for a man than dust a table for a woman."—EXTRACT FROM PRIVATE CONVERSATION.
"But for loving, why, you would not, Sweet,
If we prayed you, paid you, brayed you
In a mortar, for you could not, Sweet!"
—BROWNING.
This was something I wouldn't have allowed to happen, could I have prevented it!
For Dick Holiday, of all people, to come upon me when I was having my hand kissed by Harry Markham, of all other people in the world!
Of course you see what Captain Holiday thought he had interrupted?
A love-scene!
He'd heard from me about the man who sailed for Salonika just before I left London, and that I'd joined up for the Land Army on that account. He'd tumbled to it that Harry, returned from Salonika, was "the" man. Now he saw, with his own eyes, this young staff-officer pressing his lips to the hand which I had put affectionately upon his red-tabbed shoulder.
Naturally Captain Holiday thought this meant the Happy Ending to whatever misunderstanding I and the other young man had had. In his mind I suppose he was certain that he would soon have to congratulate us!
Of course he never betrayed by one twitch of his face what he thought of what I know he must have seen.
He merely said quietly: "Ah, here you are. The others are going, Miss Matthews."