Major Vigoureux | Page 9

selection among a number of applicants."
"I didn't want to be told that," snapped Miss Gabriel. "What I meant
was, the Commander-in-Chief probably knew something of the
man--had informed himself of something in his record--before sending
him down to this exile."
"And a jolly good exile, too!" put in Mr. Rogers, heartily.

"It used to be," said Miss Gabriel. "This Colonel Bartlemy, for instance,
was a coward. I've heard it told of him that once, during his command,
a sort of mutiny broke out in the Barracks. It happened at a time when
the newspapers were full of nonsense about France invading us by a
sudden descent; and the noise, reaching him in the quarters where he
lodged with his wife and one general maid-servant, put him in a terrible
fright. He had fenced off these quarters of his for privacy, because Mrs.
Bartlemy thought it would be a good deal better for the maid-servant;
and they communicated with the Barracks by a staircase with a door of
which he kept the key. On the first alarm he ran to this door and called
through the key-hole for his orderly; but the orderly, who himself was
taking part in the disturbance, did not hear. So the Colonel called up his
wife and the servant, and joined them at the head of the stairs after he
had slipped on his belt and sword. By this time the noise below was
deafening. The Colonel, putting a brave face on it, managed to get the
key into the lock and turn it. Then, as he flung the door open, he turned
with a bow to his wife and said very politely, in French--for they were
in the habit of talking French before the girl--'Passez devant,
madame!'"
"How did it end?" asked Mr. Rogers, after a guffaw.
"Oh, it turned out to be just a barrack brawl. The soldiers were always
the worst-behaved lot in the Islands, and perpetually
grumbling--though in those days," added Miss Gabriel, "I always
understood that they were fed and clothed sufficiently."
The Commandant whitened. Mrs. Fossell, a nervous body in a cap with
lilac ribbon, rose in some little fluster, and opined that it was almost
time to cut for partners.
A few minutes later the Commandant found himself seated opposite Mr.
Fossell, with Miss Gabriel and Mr. Rogers for opponents--Miss Gabriel
on his left. He prepared to enjoy himself, for whist meant silence, and
he could have chosen no better partner than Mr. Fossell, who played a
sound game, and with a perfectly inscrutable face.
"Dear me!" said Miss Gabriel, in the act of picking up her cards, "it

seems as if this had happened a great many times before! What do you
say, Mr. Fossell, to staking half-a-crown on the rubber, just to enliven
the game? You don't object on principle, I know, to playing for
money."
"No, indeed, ma'am," answered Mr. Fossell. "I am content if the others
are willing--not that for me the pleasure of playing against you needs
any such--er--adventitious stimulus."
Miss Gabriel appealed to Mr. Rogers.
Mr. Rogers thought it would be great fun. "Come along, Vigoureux,"
he almost shouted, "you can't refuse a lady's challenge!"
What could the poor Commandant do? Almost before he knew he had
nodded, though with a set face, and by the nod committed himself. He
felt his few coins burning in his breeches' pocket against his thigh, as if
they warned him.
But, after all, Fossell was an excellent player. With the smallest luck,
he and Fossell ought to be more than a match for a pair of whom, if one
(Miss Gabriel) was wily, the other played a game not usually
distinguishable from bumble-puppy.
They won the first game easily.
They had almost won the second when a devastating seven trumps in
Mr. Rogers's hand (which he played atrociously) saw their opponents
almost level--the score eight-seven. In the next hand, Miss Gabriel--for
this was old-fashioned long whist--held all four honours, and took the
game.
The Commandant looked at Mr. Fossell. But a financier is not
disturbed by the risk of half-a-crown.
Only half-a-crown!--but for the Commandant a week between this
half-a-crown and another.

He wondered what Fossell would say--Fossell, sitting there, so
imperturbable, with his shiny bald head--if he knew.
"Game and!" announced Mr. Rogers.
By this time the players at the second table, aware of the half-a-crown
at stake, were listening in a state of suppressed excitement--suppressed
because the Vicar, being deaf, had not overheard Miss Gabriel's
challenge, and the others feared that he might disapprove of playing for
money.
The Vicar, who played against Mr. and Mrs. Pope, with Mrs. Fossell
for partner, had a habit of soliloquising over his hand on any subject
that occurred to him. The rest of the table deferred to this habit,