Page:No More Parades (Albert & Charles Boni).djvu/186

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NO MORE PARADES

Like . . . You know Who. . . . That is his model. . . . " She said to herself: "Curse him! . . . . I hope he likes it. . . . You'd think the only thing he thinks about is the beastly duck he's wolfing down." . . . And then aloud: "They used to say: 'He saved others; himself he could not save. . . . '"

The ex-sergeant-major looked at her gravely:

"Ma'am," he said, we couldn't say exactly that of the captain. . . . For I fancy it was said of our Redeemer. . . . But we 'ave said that if ever there was a poor bloke the captain could 'elp, 'elp 'im 'e would. . . . Yet the unit was always getting 'ellish strafe from headquarters. . . . "

Suddenly Sylvia began to laugh. . . . As she began to laugh she had remembered. . . . The alabaster image in the nun's chapel at Birkenhead the vision of which had just presented itself to her, had been the recumbent tomb of an honourable Mrs Tremayne-Warlock. . . . She was said to have sinned in her youth . . . And her husband had never forgiven her. . . . That was what the nuns said. . . . She said aloud:

"A sign. . . . " Then to herself: "Blessed Mary! . . . . You've given it me in the neck. . . . Yet you could not name a father for your child, and I can name two. . . . I'm going mad. . . . Both I and he are going to go mad. . . . "

She thought of dashing an enormous patch of red upon either cheek. Then she thought it would be rather melodramatic. . . .

She made in the smoking-room, whilst she was waiting for both Tietjens and Cowley to come back from the telephone, another pact. . . . This time with