When the butler took away the soup-plates, Colonel Raleigh turned to his host.
"George, where the deuce did you pick up that butler?"
Annesley looked vaguely across the table at his old comrade. He had been far away in thought. He had eaten nothing.
"What?" he asked.
"I asked you where the deuce you got that butler of yours."
"Oh, Betty found him somewhere. Our own butler is away on a vacation. I had not noticed him. Why?"
"Well, if he doesn't look like a cub lieutenant of mine, I was born without recollection of faces."
"An orderly of yours, a lieutenant, did you say?" asked Betty, with smoldering fires in her eyes.
"Yes."
"That is strange," she mused.