My name is Alan Vernon." "Oh! I remember.

Sit down for a moment, will you, and--Mr.Thomas, oblige me by taking away this rot and rewriting it entirely in the sense I have outlined." Mr.Thomas snatched his rejected copy and vanished through another door, whereon his chief remarked in an audible voice: "That man is a perfect fool.

Lucky I thought to look at his stuff.

Well, he is no worse than the rest, in this weary world," and he burst into a hearty laugh and swung his chair round, adding, "Now then, Alan, what is it?
I have a quarter of an hour at your service.

Why, bless me! I was forgetting that it's more than a dozen years since we met; you were still a boy then, and now you have left the army with a D.S.O.