But Durrance's eyes turned at last from the amphitheatre of hills; they lost their abstraction, they became intently fixed upon the shrubbery beyond the glacis.

He was no longer recollecting Tewfik Bey and his heroic defence, or speculating upon the work to be done in the years ahead.

Without turning his head, he saw that Mather was gazing in the same direction as himself.
"What are you thinking about ?" he asked suddenly of Mather.
Mather laughed, and answered thoughtfully:-- "I was drawing up the menu of the first dinner I will have when I reach London.

I will eat it alone, I think, quite alone, and at Epitaux.

It will begin with a watermelon.