It was just at this point that I suddenly became aware of someone’s presence at my shoulder and I looked up to find Jay-Jay Marfield studying me rather contemptuously. I decided, as soon as I recovered from the shock, to take desperate measures at once, obeying the military rule that the best defense is a good offense. I stuck out my hand and exclaimed, “Hello, Jay-Jay, you old hellion—how the hell are you?”
The look on his face changed as much as it would if I had hit him. And before he could recover, I continued with a half-drunken effort to introduce him to my table companion. “Lieutenant Marfield, shake hands with an officer and a gentleman and a judge of good liquor—Captain Winstead!”
The Captain smiled and extended his hand, which Jay-Jay mechanically accepted and shook as the Captain said pleasantly, “Won’t you join us, Lieutenant?”
Jay-Jay hesitated, mumbling something about “a party down the line,” but he finally sat down and explained his presence by saying, “I thought I recognized ... er ... the Sergeant here.”
Captain Winstead saved me from speaking by observing, “Yes—he looks so much like his sister, I imagine it makes you homesick just to look at him.”
“I beg pardon!” Jay-Jay was flustered.
But the Captain was either deliberately malicious, or else the drinks had really affected him, for he proceeded very unconcernedly, “She’s such a beautiful girl and he looks so much like her—and you were so fond of her, you know—or were you——?”
“But—” Jay-Jay was stumped. For the first time since I’d known him he couldn’t talk. I couldn’t decide whether he was mad or just flustered: his appearance indicated both or either. Finally he managed to ask, “How do you happen to know so much about me, Captain?”
“It’s my business,” laughed the Captain. “I remember meeting you, or rather seeing you, in a garden, and later indoors, with this charming young lady who is Canwick’s sister.”
“O-o-h!” says Jay-Jay, beginning to see the light. “I remember you now—you had me going for a moment.” And he managed to smile more congenially, now that he knew whom he faced. “Ever hear from Leona, Captain?” he inquired suddenly, and I could feel his mind’s eye twinkling sardonically at me.