'“I don't remember your name, Mr. Haughton,” said he; “but your face seems familiar to me somehow. I can't think where I've met you before.”
'“Must have been at the Melbourne Club,” says I, pulling my moustache. “Met a heap of Sydney people there.”
'“Perhaps so,” says he. “I used to go and lunch there a good deal. I had a month's leave last month, just after I got my step. Curious it seems, too,” says he; “I can't get over it.”
'“Fill your glass and pass the claret,” says the Commissioner. “Faces are very puzzling things met in a different state of existence. I don't suppose Haughton's wanted, eh, Goring?”
'This was held to be a capital joke, and I laughed too in a way that would have made my fortune on the stage. Goring laughed too, and seemed to fear he'd wounded my feelings, for he was most polite all the rest of the evening.'
'Well, if HE didn't smoke you,' says Jim, 'we're right till the Day of Judgment. There's no one else here that's half a ghost of a chance to swear to us.'
'Except,' says I——
'Oh! Kate?' says Jim; 'never mind her. Jeanie's coming up to be married to me next month, and Kate's getting so fond of you again that there's no fear of her letting the cat out.'
'That's the very reason. I never cared two straws about her, and now I hate the sight of her. She's a revengeful devil, and if she takes it into her head she'll turn on us some fine day as sure as we're alive.'
'Don't you believe it,' says Jim; 'women are not so bad as all that.' ('Are they not?' says Starlight.) 'I'll go bail we'll be snug and safe here till Christmas, and then we'll give out, say we're going to Melbourne for a spree, and clear straight out.'