“I rather fancy that the men we saw in slickers, sir——”
Suddenly the general laughed. The aide laughed also. Aides always laugh when the general does. It is etiquette. When the general had stopped laughing he became very military again, and swore.
“We’ll look into it, Tommy,” he said. “It’s a damned shame. Somebody’s going to pay for it through the nose.”
This is a little-used phrase, but the general had read it somewhere and adopted it. It means copiously.
He was not aware, naturally, that Sergeant Gray was already paying for it, copiously.
It was at that precise moment that a little car drew up outside his quarters. The general smiled and rolled himself a cigarette.
“Bring me another cup of coffee,” he ordered, “and get another chair, Tommy.”
The girl came in. She kissed the general on his right cheek, and then on his chin, and then stood back and looked at him.
“I’m in trouble, Uncle Jimmy,” she said. “If a man from the Headquarters Troop overstays his leave what happens to him?”
“Court-martialed; maybe shot,” replied the general with a glance at Tommy, who did not see it as he was looking at the girl.