"
"That wasn't difficult?" I ventured.
"Ah, but wait. I was comin' up to the bar, when, 'Ada,' she says to her
niece, 'get me Sergeant Pritchard's particular,' and, gentlemen all, I
tell you before I could shake 'ands with the lady, there were those four
bottles o' Slits, with 'er 'air ribbon in a bow round each o' their necks,
set down in front o' me, an' as she drew the cork she looked at me under
her eyebrows in that blindish way she had o' lookin', an', 'Sergeant
Pritchard,' she says, 'I do 'ope you 'aven't changed your mind about your
particulars.' That's the kind o' woman she was--after five years!"
"I don't _see_ her yet somehow," said Hooper, but with sympathy.
"She--she never scrupled to feed a lame duck or set 'er foot on a scorpion
at any time of 'er life," Pritchard added valiantly.
"That don't help me either. My mother's like that for one."
The giant heaved inside his uniform and rolled his eyes at the car-roof.
Said Pyecroft suddenly:--
"How many women have you been intimate with all over the world, Pritch?"
Pritchard blushed plum colour to the short hairs of his seventeen-inch
neck.
"'Undreds," said Pyecroft. "So've I. How many of 'em can you remember in
your own mind, settin' aside the first--an' per'aps the last--_and one
more_?"
"Few, wonderful few, now I tax myself," said Sergeant Pritchard,
relievedly.
"An' how many times might you 'ave been at Aukland?"
"One--two," he began.
Pages:
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336