"There will be a leaf out of our table to-night."
"Yes. Collins, Barberton, and Vaughan went this winter. Well, we are
all permanently shelved upon the world's half-pay list as it is. The
obituary column is just the last formality which gazettes us out of the
service altogether," and Sutch stretched out and eased his crippled leg,
which fourteen years ago that day had been crushed and twisted in the
fall of a scaling-ladder.
"I am glad that you came before the others," continued Feversham. "I
would like to take your opinion. This day is more to me than the
anniversary of our attack upon the Redan. At the very moment when we
were standing under arms in the dark--"
"To the west of the quarries; I remember," interrupted Sutch, with a
deep breath. "How should one forget?"
"At that very moment Harry was born in this house. I thought, therefore,
that if you did not object, he might join us to-night. He happens to be
at home. He will, of course, enter the service, and he might learn
something, perhaps, which afterward will be of use--one never knows."
"By all means," said Sutch, with alacrity. For since his visits to
General Feversham were limited to the occasion of these anniversary
dinners, he had never yet seen Harry Feversham.
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