'Pheu! Phil!' 'That's what it comes to,' was Philip's answer.

'Precautionary measures, eh ?' 'You can make them provocative.' 'Will you beg for India ?' 'I shall hear in an hour.' 'Have we got men ?' 'Always the question with us.' 'What a country!' sighed the captain.

'I'd compose ye a song of old Drowsylid, except that it does no good to be singing it at the only time when you can show her the consequences of her sluggery.

A country of compromise goes to pieces at the first cannon-shot of the advance, and while she's fighting on it's her poor business to be putting herself together again: So she makes a mess of the beginning, to a certainty.

If it weren't that she had the army of Neptune about her--' 'The worst is she may some day start awake to discover that her protecting deity 's been napping too .-- A boy or girl did you say, my dear ?' His wife replied: 'A son.' 'Ah! more births.' The captain appeared to be computing.