Yet he was not entertained; rather he was enthralled;
he sat quiet under the compulsion of a spell. His face became
unnaturally white, his eyes unnaturally large, while the flames of the
candles shone ever redder and more blurred through a blue haze of
tobacco smoke, and the level of the wine grew steadily lower in the
decanters.
Thus half of that one hour's furlough was passed; and then General
Feversham, himself jogged by the unlucky mention of a name, suddenly
blurted out in his jerky fashion:--
"Lord Wilmington. One of the best names in England, if you please. Did
you ever see his house in Warwickshire? Every inch of the ground you
would think would have a voice to bid him play the man, if only in
remembrance of his fathers.... It seemed incredible and mere camp
rumour, but the rumour grew. If it was whispered at the Alma, it was
spoken aloud at Inkermann, it was shouted at Balaclava. Before
Sebastopol the hideous thing was proved. Wilmington was acting as
galloper to his general. I believe upon my soul the general chose him
for the duty, so that the fellow might set himself right. There were
three hundred yards of bullet-swept flat ground, and a message to be
carried across them.
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