She answered his unspoken question as to why she was delaying. "Aren't there any particulars that your Lordship ought to have? Things like his regi
mental number, and his birthday, and where he was born, and all that? And wouldn't this help?"
"What's that?"
She pulled out from her apron-pocket an envelope. "It's one of his letters. If the General was to see it, he'd know I had the right."
"May I glance through it?"
Tabs unfolded the scribbled sheets of paper. They were torn from an Army note-book.
"My darling Ann:
The jolly old war drags on and seems as though it were never going to end. Not that I've much to kick about, for it's proved a chance for me. Here's the great news. I'm in for my commission and shall soon be 'an officer and a gentleman.' Don't tell his Lordship if you write to him or see him; he's still in the ranks and might not like it. It's funny to think that I shall be his military superior before many weeks are out and that, were he and I to meet, he'd have to salute me. If I come through the war, I sha'n't go back to being a valet. Once having been a gentleman——"
Tabs ran rapidly through this sheet and turned to the next:—
"You're wonderfully good. I got the socks that you knitted and the two parcels of food from Harrods. You mustn't spend so much of your money on me. When it's all ended, I'll pay you back. We'll get married and have a little cottage in a little town, the way the song says that we heard together at the Comedy on my last leave. You remember how it goes.