The Dash for Khartoum | Page 9

talk to you. You have always been a
very steady man, and I should be sorry in the extreme if any thing
should happen which would cause you to be brought before the colonel.
I have no doubt this affair has troubled you greatly, and that it is
entirely owing to that that you have become unsettled. Try to pull
yourself round, man. You know that nobody attributes the slightest
shadow of blame to you in the matter."
"Thank you, sir. I was coming to see you if you hadn't sent for me, to
say that I wished to give up my stripes and return to the ranks. I know I
shall be degraded if I don't do it of my own free-will, and I would
rather go down than be sent down."
"But what will your wife do? It would be a great change to her,
Humphreys."
"My wife has made up her mind to go home, sir, and I think it is the
best thing she can do. She will never be comfortable in the regiment,
and to say the truth we are not comfortable together. She says that she
has friends in England she will go and stay with, and I think it is best to
let her go. I would rather cut my hand off than ask for any thing for

myself, but as I am sure that it is for the best that she should go, and as
I don't hear of any invalids or women going home at present, I should
be very much obliged if you would lend me twenty pounds. I have got
thirty laid by, and fifty will be enough to send her across by rail to
Bombay, pay her passage home, and leave her twenty pounds in hand
when she gets there. I will pay it off so much a month."
"You are welcome to twenty pounds without any talk of repayment,
Humphreys. But I wouldn't take any hasty step if I were you. If your
wife and you have had a quarrel she may change her mind in a day or
two, and think better of it."
"No, sir; I think we are pretty well agreed on the point that she had best
go home. People make mistakes sometimes, and I think we both made a
mistake when we got married. Anyhow, we have both agreed that it is
best to part for a time."
Accordingly three or four days later Mrs. Humphreys left Agra for
Bombay, and was seen no more in the regiment. Sergeant Humphreys
gave up his stripes and returned to the ranks, and for two years
remained there. After his wife had left him he gradually gave up the
habit into which he had fallen, and at the end of the two years again
became a non-commissioned officer. He was never heard to speak of
his wife after she left him, nor so far as his comrades knew did he ever
receive a letter from her. Soon after he had again got his stripes the
regiment returned to England, and a month later Captain Clinton sent in
his papers and retired from the service.
CHAPTER II.
AT CHELTENHAM.
"Everything packed and ready, boys?"
"Yes, father, I think so."
"The dog-cart will be at the door at eleven. Be sure and be ready in
time. It won't do to miss your train, you know. Well, you have had a

pleasant holiday this time, haven't you?"
"Very," both boys replied together.
"It has been awfully jolly," one went on, "and that trip in Brittany was
certainly the best thing we have done, though we have always enjoyed
our holidays. It is ever so much nicer going to out-of-the-way sort of
places, and stopping at jolly little inns without any crowd and fuss, than
being in those great Swiss hotels as we were last year, where every one
was English, and one had to be in at regular times and almost fight to
get something to eat. I hope next year you will be able to take us to
Norway, as you were saying yesterday. I should think it would be just
the same sort of thing as Brittany, only, of course, different sort of
scenery, and different language and different people. Madge, you will
have to set to and get up Norse to act as our interpreter."
"You are very lazy boys. I had to do all the talking in Brittany. You are
supposed to have learnt French longer than I have."
"Oh, yes; supposed. Nobody cares about their French lessons. They
make no difference in your place in the school, and so no one takes the
trouble to grind at them. Well, come along, let us take a turn round the
place for an hour before we start."