His military experience had been gathered during the few months he held a commission in the militia battalion of the Connaught Rangers, an honourable position which he had resigned because his brother officers persistently misunderstood his methods of winning money at cards.

No one, however, was found to deny that he really did possess a wonderful knowledge of horses.

The worst that Miss Goold's correspondents could suggest with regard to this third qualification was that he knew too much.

None of these drawbacks to the Captain--he had assumed the title when he accepted the command of the volunteers--weighed with Miss Goold.

Indeed, she admitted to Mary O'Dwyer, in a moment of frankness, that if her men weren't more or less blackguards she couldn't expect them to go out to South Africa.