V.
CONCERNING WILLIAM HENRY WINTERBOTHAM.
"You are sad, my Buster," quoth Mummy, as that man of war sat somewhat distrait, toying with his tea-spoon. "Second supper disagree with you at the Ball?"
"I am, Lady," was the reply, "for my young life is blighted, and though, apparently, I sit at tea in your delightful and hospitable drawing-room, in reality I sit among the shattered fragments of my wrecked and ruined career. . . . Second supper never disagrees with me."
"Who is she?" inquired Mummy forthwith.
"Mrs. Crickford-Crocker," confessed the youth.
"Buster! She's nearly old enough to be your mother," said Mummy, and laughed. To appreciate the joke one had to know the General's wife, Mrs. Crickford-Crocker, commonly known as Caledonia—because she was stern and wild.
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