"'Tis the same Jack Grave-airs!" he cried, "the same sedate John! Ha, damme, man-Jack, be curst if I don't joy to see thee again!"

"Why George!" exclaimed the Major, patting the Colonel's back with one hand and gripping his fist with the other, "why Georgie, I do protest thou'rt growing fat!"

"Burn thee for a vile-tongued rogue to say so, Jack! Ha, Jack, do ya'

mind that night in the trenches before Maastricht when we laid a trap for young Despard of Ogle's and caught the Colonel? 'Twas next day we stormed and ya' took a bayonet through your thigh----"

"And you brought me down from the breach George----"

"And cursed ya' heartily the while, I forget why but ya' deserved it!"

"Stay, George, supper is served I think, and let me introduce Viscount Merivale"; which done he saluted the company and they forthwith sat down to table.

And now corks squeaked and popped, servants and waiting-men bustled to and fro, gla.s.ses clinked, knives and forks rattled merrily to the hum of talk and ring of laughter.

"By the way, sir," said the Major, addressing his neighbour the Marquis, "I don't--er--see Mr. Dalroyd here to-night."

"No more you do sir, strike me dumb! And for the sufficient reason he ain't here. Dalroyd's a determined hunter o' feminine game sir, O dem!

To-night he's in full cry, I take it--joys o' the chase, sir--some dainty bit o' rustic beauty--some shy doe----"

"I wonder who?" enquired the Viscount, stifling a yawn.

"Dalroyd's dev'lish close," answered Lord Alvaston, "close as 'n oyster 'sequently echo answers 'who?'"

"Gentlemen all," cried Sir Benjamin, "I rise to give you a name--to call the toast of toasts. I give you Betty--our bewitching, our incomparable, Our Admirable Betty!"

Up rose the company one and all and the long chamber echoed to the toast:

"Our Admirable Betty!"

Ensued a moment's pause and every empty gla.s.s shivered to fragments on the broad hearth. But now, as the clatter and hum and laughter broke out anew, the Major, frowning a little, glanced across at the Viscount and found him frowning also.

Courses came and went and ever the talk and laughter waxed louder and merrier, gla.s.ses brimmed and were emptied, bottles made the circuit of the table in unending procession; gentlemen pledged each other, toasts were called and duly honoured; in the midst of which the Major feeling a hand upon his shoulder glanced up into the face of the Viscount.

"Nunky," he murmured, "certain things considered, I'm minded for a walk!" and with a smiling nod he turned and vanished among the bustling throng of servants and waiting-men, as Sir Benjamin arose, portentous of brow and with laced handkerchief a-flutter:

"Gentlemen," said he, glancing round upon the brilliant a.s.sembly, "gentlemen, or should I rather say--fellow-martyrs of the rosy, roguish archer----"

"Haw!" exclaimed the Captain. "Prime, Ben!"

"Hear, hear!" nodded Alvaston. "Good, Ben--doocid delicate 'n' the bottle's with you, Jasper!"

"We are here, sirs," continued Sir Benjamin, bowing his acknowledgments, "to sit unitedly in hem! in judgment upon the individual compositions of the--the----"

"Field!" suggested the Marquis.

"Gang?" murmured Alvaston.

"Amorous brotherhood!" sighed Sir Jasper.

"Company, gentlemen, of the company. Versification affords a broad field for achievement poetic since we have such various forms as the rondel, ballade, pantoum--"

"O burn me, Ben," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Alvaston, "you're out there! What's verses t' do with phantoms----"

"I said 'pantoum,' sir--besides which, gentlemen, we have the triolet, the kyrielle, the virelai, the vilanelle----"

"O dem!" cried the Marquis, "sounds curst improper and villainous, too, Ben." Cries of "Order, Ben, order----"

"And likewise O!" added Lord Alvaston.

"Eh?" exclaimed Sir Benjamin, "I say what----"

"None o' your French villainies, Ben," continued the Marquis, "we want nothing smacking o' the tap-room, the stable or the kennel, Ben, 'twon't do! We must ha' nought to cause the blush o' shame----"

"No, Ben," added Alvaston, "nor yet t' 'ffend th' chastest ear----"

"Od sir, od's body--I protest----"

"So none o' your villainies Ben," sighed Alvaston, "no looseness, coa.r.s.eness, ribaldry or bawdry----"

"Blood and fury!" roared the exasperated Sir Benjamin, "I hope I'm sufficiently a man of honour----"

"Quite, Ben, quite--the very pink!" nodded his lordship affably. "And talkin' o' pink, the bottle stands, Marchdale! Fill, gentlemen. I give you Ben, our blooming Benjamin and no heel-taps!"

The health was drunk with acclaim and Sir Benjamin, once more his jovial and pompous self, proceeded:

"In writing these odes and sonnets we have all, I take it, depended upon our mother--hem! our mother-wit and each followed his individual fancy. I now take joy to summon Denholm to read to us his--ah--effort."

Sir Jasper rose, drew a paper from his bosom, sighed, languished with his soulful eyes and read:

"Groan, groan my heart, yet in thy groaning joy Since thou'rt deep-smit of Venus' blooming boy; Till Sorrow's flown And Joy's thine own Groan!"

"Haw!" exclaimed the Captain, "very chaste! Doocid delicate!"

Sir Jasper bowed and continued:

"Pant, pant my heart, yet in thy panting ne'er Let Doubt steal in to slay thee with despair; But till Love grant All heart doth want Pant!"

"Gad!" said the Marquis, "you're doing a dem'd lot o' panting, Jasper!"

"I vow 'tis quaintly mournful!" nodded Sir Benjamin. "'Tis polished and pa.s.sionate!"

Again Sir Jasper bowed, and continued:

"Sob, sob my soul, sobs soul----"