And really, in its present stages, so far as its present developments went, the “racket” pleased him.  It amused his active brain, besides (as he had said to Mr. Saffron) exercising his active body, though certainly in a rather grotesque and bizarre fashion.  The attraction of it went deeper than that.  It appealed to some of those tendencies and impulses of his character which had earned such heavy censure from Major-General Punnit and had produced so grave an expression on Captain Alec’s handsome face without, however, being, even in that officer’s exacting judgment, disgraceful.  And, finally, there was the lure of unexplored possibilities, not only material and external, but psychological not only touching what others might do or what might happen to them, but raising also speculation as to what he might do, or what might happen to him at his own hands; for example, how far he would flout authority, defy the usual, and deny the accepted.  The love of rebellion, of making foolish the wisdom of the wise, of hampering the orderly and inexorable treatment of people just as, according to the best modern lights, they ought to be treated, this lawless love was strong in Beaumaroy.  Not as a principle; it was the stronger for being an instinct, a wayward instinct that might carry him, he scarce knew where.

Mr. Saffron came back, greeted again by Beaumaroy’s courtly bow and Hooper’s vaguely reminiscent but slovenly military salute.  The pair sat down to a homely beefsteak; but the golden tinted wine gurgled into their glasses.  But, before they fell to, there was a little incident.  A sudden, but fierce, anger seized old Mr. Saffron.  In his harshest tones he rapped out at the Sergeant, “My knife!  You careless scoundrel, you haven’t given me my knife!”

Beaumaroy sprang to his feet with a muttered exclamation:  “It’s all my fault, sir.  I forgot to give it to Hooper.  I always lock it up when I go out.”  He went to a little oak sideboard and unlocked a drawer, then came back to Mr. Saffron’s side.  “Here it is, and I humbly apologize.”

“Very good! very good!” said the old man testily, as he took the implement.

“Ain’t anybody going to apologize to me?” asked Hooper, scowling.

“Oh, get out, Sergeant!” said Beaumaroy good-naturedly.  “We can’t bother about your finer feelings.”  He glanced anxiously at Mr. Saffron.  “All right now, aren’t you, sir?” he inquired.

Mr. Saffron drank his glass of wine.  “I am perhaps too sensitive to any kind of inattention; but it’s not wholly unnatural in my position, Hector.”

“We both desire to be attentive and respectful, sir.  Don’t we, Hooper?”

“Oh my, yes!” grinned the Sergeant, showing his very ugly teeth.  “It’s only owing that we ’aven’t quite been brought up in royal palaces.”

CHAPTER IV

PROFESSIONAL ETIQUETTE