"You'll do nothing of the kind," declared the young woman. "Come inside at once, and wait till your mother comes home from the market."
"Have I got a mother?" asked Corporal Bateman, simply. "What's she like? Where's father?"
"I can't answer that last question, Daniel dear, because he drew his final breath years ago. Don't you remember the new suit you had for the funeral?"
"I don't remember nothing," he said, hopelessly. "Me mind's a blank."
He was anxious to stay outside the house until someone else arrived, but the cousin, an authoritative person, conducted him through the passage. On observing that he did not know where to find the row of hat pegs, she burst into tears; he regarded her with an increased aloofness, and asked the way to the best room. There she announced a desire to sit near to him, and to hold his hand, and to talk about old times; he remarked, in a confused mumbling way, that he made it a principle never to carry on with female strangers.
"Have you had your tea?" she inquired.
"I don't know," replied Corporal Bateman, absently. "If I have, I've forgot all about it. I forget about everything. Don't bother me, else I shall get worse."
She was in the kitchen preparing the meal, when Mrs. Bateman let herself in at the front door with a latch-key. The girl listened. "Good afternoon, ma'am," said the returned soldier. "Have you called to see mother? Because, if so, she's out!"
The two women consulted agitatedly later, endeavouring to find a plan for arousing the dormant intellect of the visitor. They counted it a hopeful sign that he remembered the name of the nearest public-house; Mrs. Bateman expressed the hope that a good supper would brighten him. As a result of their deliberations, the girl went softly into the room, where Corporal Bateman was now dozing, and gave him a modest and cousinly kiss; he awoke at once, and declared he would provide her with a coloured eye if she dared to do this again.
"A liberty," he said, aggrievedly. "That's what I call it. If it happens again, I go straight out of the house. You understand!"