months ago," he said. "It's quite a shake-up trying to settle down again."
"You were in France, then?"
"Oh, yes; but I didn't get up to the front much—only two or three times, and then just for a day or so. I was in the transportation service."
"You were an officer, of course."
"Yes," he said. "They let me play I was a major."
"I guessed a major," she said. "You'd always be pretty grand, of course."
Russell was amused. "Well, you see," he informed her, "as it happened, we had at least several other majors in our army. Why would I always be something 'pretty grand?'"
"You're related to the Palmers. Don't you notice they always affect the pretty grand?"
"Then you think I'm only one of their affectations, I take it."
"Yes, you seem to be the most successful one they've got!" Alice said, lightly. "You certainly do belong to them." And she laughed as if at something hidden from him. "Don't you?"
"But you've just excused me for that," he protested. "You said nobody could be blamed for my
