INSIDE THE FORT The six English officers made it a practice, so far as they could, to dine together; and during the third week of the siege the conversation happened one evening to take a particular turn.

Ever afterwards, during this one hour of the twenty-four, it swerved regularly into the same channel.

The restaurants of London were energetically discussed, and their merits urged by each particular partisan with an enthusiasm which would have delighted a shareholder.

Where you got the best dinner, where the prettiest women were to be seen, whether a band was a drawback or an advantage--not a point was omitted, although every point had been debated yesterday or the day before.

To-night the grave question of the proper number for a supper party was opened by Major Dewes of the 5th Gurkha Regiment.
"Two," said the Political Officer promptly, and he chuckled under his grey moustache.