"Is it because you're a prisoner? Do you know, I couldn't get to sleep last night for ever so long—not till past eleven—thinking about it all. I say—don't you hate old Boney? I do. He makes everybody unhappy. Just think of that poor Marie and her son; if you and papa hadn't been there, she would have lost Jean, and perhaps she'd never have seen him again. Wasn't it horrid? And I don't see how men can fight properly, when they don't want to fight at all. Our soldiers fight, because they choose, not because they're made to whether they want it or not. I'm sure Jean didn't want to be a soldier, or he wouldn't have been so glad to get off."
Mrs. Baron leant across to say softly, "Roy, do leave Denham in peace for a little while."
"Why, ma'am, he likes me to talk. He always says so."
Mrs. Baron looked again towards Ivor, with a dubious expression.
(To be continued.)
[VARIETIES.]
"Willie only took a Horse."
Horse-stealers in our time are a good deal handicapped by a change that has come over public opinion. The Government used to hang them, but the populace were by no means horrified at the crime.
Here is a story indicating considerable former leniency in popular thought. A horse-coper "took" a horse and was discovered and convicted, but owing to some assistance he had given the police, he received a light sentence.