“Dear child!” he murmured, apparently uttering his thoughts aloud rather than addressing her directly.  “So you find me gruff, eh?”

“A regular bear, when you lecture me.  But that is only occasionally.  You can be very nice when you like, when you forget your past troubles.  And pray, why do you call me a child?

“Have I done so?”

“Not a moment ago.  How old are you, Mr. Jenks?  I am twenty—­twenty last December.”

“And I,” he said, “will be twenty-eight in August.”

“Good gracious!” she gasped.  “I am very sorry, but I really thought you were forty at least.”

“I look it, no doubt.  Let me be equally candid and admit that you, too, show your age markedly.”

She smiled nervously.  “What a lot of trouble you must have had to—­to—­to give you those little wrinkles in the corners of your mouth and eyes,” she said.

“Wrinkles!  How terrible!”

“I don’t know.  I think they rather suit you; besides, it was stupid of me to imagine you were so old.  I suppose exposure to the sun creates wrinkles, and you must have lived much in the open air.”

“Early rising and late going to bed are bad for the complexion,” he declared, solemnly.

“I often wonder how army officers manage to exist,” she said.  “They never seem to get enough sleep, in the East, at any rate.  I have seen them dancing for hours after midnight, and heard of them pig-sticking or schooling hunters at five o’clock next morning.”

“So you assume I have been in the army?”

“I am quite sure of it.”

“May I ask why?”

“Your manner, your voice, your quiet air of authority, the very way you walk, all betray you.”

“Then,” he said sadly, “I will not attempt to deny the fact.  I held a commission in the Indian Staff Corps for nine years.  It was a hobby of mine, Miss Deane, to make myself acquainted with the best means of victualing my men and keeping them in good health under all sorts of fanciful conditions and in every kind of climate, especially under circumstances when ordinary stores were not available.  With that object in view I read up every possible country in which my regiment might be engaged, learnt the local names of common articles of food, and ascertained particularly what provision nature made to sustain life.  The study interested me.  Once, during the Soudan campaign, it was really useful, and procured me promotion.”

“Tell me about it.”

“During some operations in the desert it was necessary for my troop to follow up a small party of rebels mounted on camels, which, as you probably know, can go without water much longer than horses.  We were almost within striking distance, when our horses completely gave out, but I luckily noticed indications which showed that there was water beneath a portion of the plain much below the general level.  Half an hour’s spade work proved that I was right.  We took up the pursuit again, and ran the quarry to earth, and I got my captaincy.”