“But it wasn’t,” said the other. “We took a lot of trouble to make our regalia out of camouflage-stuff that we’d pinched, and we manufactured our jewels from old metal. I’ve got the set now. It kept us happy for weeks.”
“Ye were absolutely irregular an’ unauthorised. Whaur was your Warrant?” said the Brother from the Military Lodge. “Grand Lodge ought to take steps against——”
“If Grand Lodge had any sense,” a private three places up our table broke in, “it ’ud warrant travelling Lodges at the front and attach first-class lecturers to ’em.”
“Wad ye confer degrees promiscuously?” said the scandalised Scot.
“Every time a man asked, of course. You’d have half the Army in.”
The speaker played with the idea for a little while, and proved that, on the lowest scale of fees, Grand Lodge would get huge revenues.
“I believe,” said the Engineer Officer thoughtfully, “I could design a complete travelling Lodge outfit under forty pounds weight.”
“Ye’re wrong. I’ll prove it. We’ve tried ourselves,” said the Military Lodge man; and they went at it together across the table, each with his own note-book.
The “Banquet” was simplicity itself. Many of us ate in haste so as to get back to barracks or hospitals, but now and again a Brother came in from the outer darkness to fill a chair and empty a plate. These were Brethren who had been there before and needed no examination.
One man lurched in—helmet, Flanders mud, accoutrements and all—fresh from the leave-train.