"I'm sure," she said, "you're a very good man. . . ." She did not try to keep the tears out of her eyes, remembering his words: "Up in the cold camp," . . . "I'm glad the captain, as you call him, did not leave you in the cold camp. . . . You're devoted to him, aren't you? . . . There are others he does leave . . . up in . . . the cold camp. . . . For punishment, you know. . . ."
The ex-sergeant-major, the tears in his eyes too, said:
"Well, there is men you 'as to give the C.B. to. . . . C.B. means confined to barracks. . . ."
"Oh, there are!" she exclaimed. "There are! . . . And women, too. . . . Surely there are women, too? . . ."
The sergeant-major said:
"Wacks, per'aps. . . . I don't know. . . . They say women's discipline is much like ours. . . . Founded on hours!"
She said:
"Do you know what they used to say of the captain? . . ." She said to herself: "I pray to God the stiff, fatuous beast likes sitting here listening to this stuff. . . . Blessed Virgin, mother of God, make him take me. . . . Before midnight. Before eleven. ... As soon as we get rid of this . . . No, he's a decent little man. . . . Blessed Virgin!" . . . "Do you know what they used to say of the captain? ... I heard the warmest banker in England say it of him. . . ."
The sergeant-major, his eyes enormously opened, said:
"Did you know the warmest banker in England? . . . But there, we always knew the captain was well connected. . . ." She went on: