“And it goes just here—­the level of the heart.  This is where it goes.”  And carefully he pinned the large, radiating ornament on the black velvet dinner-jacket of the old man.

“That is the first—­and very becoming,” said Lady Franks.

“Oh, very becoming!  Very becoming!” said the tall wife of the Major—­ she was a handsome young woman of the tall, frail type.

“Do you think so, my dear?” said the old man, with his eternal smile:  the curious smile of old people when they are dead.

“Not only becoming, Sir,” said the Major, bending his tall, slim figure forwards.  “But a reassuring sign that a nation knows how to distinguish her valuable men.”

“Quite!” said Lady Franks.  “I think it is a very great honour to have got it.  The king was most gracious, too—­ Now the other.  That goes beside it—­the Italian—­”

Sir William stood there undergoing the operation of the pinning-on.  The Italian star being somewhat smaller than the British, there was a slight question as to where exactly it should be placed.  However, Arthur decided it:  and the old man stood before the company with his two stars on his breast.

“And now the Ruritanian,” said Lady Franks eagerly.

“That doesn’t go on the same level with the others, Lady Franks,” said Arthur.  “That goes much lower down—­about here.”

“Are you sure?” said Lady Franks.  “Doesn’t it go more here?”

“No no, no no, not at all.  Here!  Isn’t it so, Sybil?”

“Yes, I think so,” said Sybil.

Old Sir William stood quite silent, his breast prepared, peering over the facings of his coat to see where the star was going.  The Colonel was called in, and though he knew nothing about it, he agreed with Arthur, who apparently did know something.  So the star was pinned quite low down.  Sir William, peeping down, exclaimed: 

“Well, that is most curious now!  I wear an order over the pit of my stomach!  I think that is very curious:  a curious place to wear an order.”

“Stand up!  Stand up and let us look!” said Lady Franks.  “There now, isn’t it handsome?  And isn’t it a great deal of honour for one man?  Could he have expected so much, in one life-time?  I call it wonderful.  Come and look at yourself, dear”—­and she led him to a mirror.

“What’s more, all thoroughly deserved,” said Arthur.

“I should think so,” said the Colonel, fidgetting.

“Ah, yes, nobody has deserved them better,” cooed Sybil.

“Nor on more humane and generous grounds,” said the Major, sotto voce.

“The effort to save life, indeed,” returned the Major’s young wife:  “splendid!”

Sir William stood naively before the mirror and looked at his three stars on his black velvet dinner-jacket.

“Almost directly over the pit of my stomach,” he said.  “I hope that is not a decoration for my greedy APPETITE.”  And he laughed at the young women.