“Have you seen this in the paper about promotion?” she said eagerly.

“No; what is it?” I asked.  “Are they making more generals?”

“I don’t know about generals; it’s Second Lieutenants being Lieutenants.”

“You’re joking on a very grave subject,” I said seriously.  “You can’t expect to win the War if you go on like that.”

“Well, you read it,” she said, handing me the paper.  “It’s a committee of Mr. Winston CHURCHILL’S.”

I took the paper with a trembling hand, and read.  She was right!  If the paper was to be believed, all Second Lieutenants were to become Lieutenants after eighteen years’ service.  At last my chance had come.

“My dear, this is wonderful,” I said.  “In another fifteen years we shall be nearly there.  You might buy two more stars this afternoon and practise sewing them on, in order to be ready.  You mustn’t be taken by surprise when the actual moment comes.”

“But you’re a Lieutenant now,” she said, “if that’s true.  It says that ‘after eighteen months—­’”

I snatched up the paper again.  Good Heavens! it was eighteen months—­not years.

“Then I am a Lieutenant,” I said.

We had a bottle of champagne for dinner that night, and Celia got the paper and read it aloud to my tunic.  And just for practice she took the two stars off my other tunic and sewed them on this one—­thus: 

** **

And we had a very happy evening.

“I suppose it will be a few days before it’s officially announced,” I said.

“Bother, I suppose it will,” said Celia, and very reluctantly she took one star off each shoulder, leaving the matter—­so: 

* *

And the months rolled on.

And I am still a Second Lieutenant ...

I do not complain; indeed I am even rather proud of it.  If I am not gaining on my original one star, at least I am keeping pace with it.  I might so easily have been a corporal by now.

But I should like to have seen a little more notice taken of me in the Gazette.  I scan it every day, hoping for some such announcement as this: 

“Second Lieutenant M——­ to remain a Second Lieutenant.”

Or this: 

“Second Lieutenant M——­ to be seconded and to retain his present rank of Second Lieutenant.”

Or even this: 

“Second Lieutenant M——­ relinquishes the rank of Acting Second Lieutenant on ceasing to command a Battalion, and reverts to the rank of Second Lieutenant.”

Failing this, I have thought sometimes of making an announcement in the Personal Column of The Times: 

“Second Lieutenant M——­ regrets that his duties as a Second Lieutenant prevent him from replying personally to the many kind inquiries he has received, and begs to take this opportunity of announcing that he still retains a star on each shoulder.  Both doing well.”