And, as I said, it was half-past four as they hastened up the path again to the top gate of the Barracks.
"I hope he's been good," Judy said, as she turned the handle.
"Yes, you come, too, Pip"-- for that young gentleman hung back one agonized second.

"Twenty kicks or blows divided by two only make ten, you see." They went up the long stone veranda and stopped at one door.
There was a little knot of young officers laughing and talking close by.
"Take my word, 'twas as good as a play to see Wooly grabbing his youngster, and stuffing it into a cab, and getting in himself, all with a look of ponderous injured dignity," one said, and laughed at the recollection.
Another blew away a cloud of cigar smoke.

"It was a jolly little beggar," he said.

"It doubled its fists and landed His High Mightiness one in the eye; and then its shoe dropped off, and we all rushed to pick it up, and it was muddy and generally dilapidated, and old Wooly went red slowly up to his ear-tips as he tried to put it on." A little figure stepped into the middle of the group--a little figure with an impossibly short and shabby ulster, thin black-stockinged legs, and a big hat crushed over a tangle of curls.
"It is my father you are speaking of," she said, her head very high, her tone haughty, "and I cannot tell where your amusement is.
Is my father here, or did I hear you say he had gone away ?" Two of the men looked foolish, the third took off his cap.
"I am sorry you should have overheard us, Miss Woolcot," he said pleasantly.

"Still, there is no irreparable harm done, is there?
Yes, your father has gone away in a cab.