"Sergeant?"
"Miss Humphrey!"
"Will you not come to us on Christmas Day?"
His eyelids closed swiftly and opened again. "I shall be on duty."
"And promoted?"
"Perhaps."
"And merry and happy?"—she smiled to herself to think of Sergeant Fones being merry and happy.
"Exactly."
The word suited him.
He paused a moment with his fingers on the latch, and turned round as if to speak; pulled off his gauntlet, and then as quickly put it on again. Had he meant to offer his hand in good-bye? He had never been seen to take the hand of anyone except with the might of the law visible in steel.