"But in winter it must be very cold up here."
"Yes, madame."
He was standing eight or ten steps above her, eyeing a tangle of barbed wire which covered a green hill slope, with indifferent eyes. He did not approve of visitors to the fort, especially ladies. What did ladies want climbing ladders and nosing about in places where they were not wanted; they were never allowed to see anything important. And as for the so-called view, they could get a better one at the Shakespeare Monument a little farther along the downs. This was Sergeant Ewins's opinion as he conducted Lieutenant Parkson's visitor up the steep steps to the little well-hidden mess-room at the cliff top, and even Mrs. Beecher Monmouth's unparalleled beauty and charm failed to win a smile from him. Parkson, who had been on duty until that minute, came running towards them as they entered the small asphalted courtyard. Mrs. Beecher Monmouth, her eyes shining, her breath coming quickly with the exertion of the ascent, clasped his hand in hers.
Parkson dismissed Ewins and apologised briskly for not being able to receive her at the fort gates.
"I was on duty till this minute. Our colonel's a bit of a martinet."
"Is he not popular?" asked Mrs. Beecher Monmouth in the low intimate—we two are alone in all the world—voice she knew so well how to use.
Parkson opened his eyes wide.
"Good Lord, yes; he's most awfully popular. He is just, you see, and the men always appreciate that."
He led his visitor into the single story building, and along a passage toward the little mess-room. Here Mrs. Beecher Monmouth seated herself in the only armchair—a cheap wicker article—and surveyed the room with smiling, but intensely receptive eyes. In a flash she took in the bare boarded floor, the trestle table, the colonel's cigar box on the mantelshelf, the Admiralty chart of the Solent which covered the end wall and lastly, the old piano, which was the worst treated instrument in the Isle of Wight.
Parkson bustled about at the tea-table, and Mrs. Beecher Monmouth presently turned her attention upon him.