Be crimson and ermine and gold,
Good lying and living and mirth,
(Oh, laugh and be fat!) the reward of the bold,
But--(sotto voce)--the meek shall inherit the earth!
CHAPTER VII
"That's the man whose face was in the mirror!" said Warrington
suddenly, reaching out to seize the babu's collar. "He's the man who
wanted to be regimental clerk! He's the man who was offering to eat a
German a day!... No--stand still, and I won't hurt you!"
"Bring him out into the fresh air!" ordered Kirby.
The illimitable sky did not seem big enough just then; four walls
could not hold him. Kirby, colonel of light cavalry, and considered
by many the soundest man in his profession, was in revolt against
himself; and his collar was a beastly mess.
"Hurry out of this hole, for heaven's sake!" he exclaimed.
So Warrington applied a little science to the babu, and that
gentleman went out through a narrow door backward at a speed and at
an angle that were new to him--so new that he could not express his
sensations in the form of speech. The door shut behind them with a
slam, and when they looked for it they could see no more than a mark
in the wall about fifty yards from the bigger door by which they had
originally entered.
"There's the carriage waiting, sir!" said Warrington, and with a
glance toward it to reassure himself, Kirby opened his mouth wide and
filled his lungs three times with the fresh, rain-sweetened air.
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