The Judgment House eBook

Gilbert Parker
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 574 pages of information about The Judgment House.

The Judgment House eBook

Gilbert Parker
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 574 pages of information about The Judgment House.

It was trumpeter Jigger of the Artillery.

“Are you the General’s orderly, then?” asked Stafford quizzically.

“The orderly’s gone w’ere ’e thought ’e’d find you, and I’ve come w’ere I know’d you’d be, sir.”

“Where did he think he’d find me?”

“Wiv the ’osses, sir.”

A look of gratification crossed Stafford’s face.  He was well known in the army as one who looked after his horses and his men.  “And what made you think I was at the hospital, Jigger?”

“Becos you’d been to the ’osses, sir.”

“Did you tell the General’s orderly that?”

“No, your gryce—­no, sir,” he added quickly, and a flush of self-reproach came to his face, for he prided himself on being a real disciplinarian, a disciple of the correct thing.  “I thought I’d like ’im to see our ‘osses, an’ ’ow you done ’em, an’ I’d find you as quick as ’e could, wiv a bit to the good p’r’aps.”

Stafford smiled.  “Off you go, then.  Find that orderly.  Say, Colonel Stafford’s compliments to the General Commanding and he will report himself at once.  See that you get it straight, trumpeter.”

Jigger would rather die than not get it straight, and his salute made that quite plain.

“It’s made a man of him, anyhow,” Stafford said to himself, as he watched the swiftly disappearing figure.  “He’s as straight as a nail, body and mind—­poor little devil....  How far away it all seems!”

A quarter of an hour later he was standing beside the troop-train which he had seen labouring to its goal.  It was carrying the old regiment of the General Officer Commanding, who had sent Stafford to its Colonel with an important message.  As the two officers stood together watching the troops detrain and make order out of the chaos of baggage and equipment, Stafford’s attention was drawn to a woman some little distance away, giving directions about her impedimenta.

“Who is the lady?” he asked, while in his mind was a sensible stir of recognition.

“Ah, there’s something like the real thing!” his companion replied.  “She is doing a capital bit of work.  She and Lady Tynemouth have got a hospital-ship down at Durban.  She’s come to link it up better with the camp.  It’s Rudyard Byng’s wife.  They’re both at it out here.”

“Who comes there!” Stafford had exclaimed a moment before with a sense of premonition.

Jasmine had come.

He drew back in the shadow as she turned round towards them.

“To the Stay Awhile—­right!” he heard a private say in response to her directions.

He saw her face, but not clearly.  He had glimpse of a Jasmine not so daintily pretty as of old, not so much of a dresden-china shepherdess; but with the face of a woman who, watching the world with understanding eyes, and living with an understanding heart, had taken on something of the mysterious depths of the Life behind life.  It was only a glimpse he had, but it was enough.  It was more than enough.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Judgment House from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.