HAD] ANO 



panions an incessant jabber, and a 

 string of questions as to whether, in 

 passing through Paris and Marseilles, 

 I had seen this or that singer or 

 danseuse, and what were the latest 

 stories now being told. 



This seemed to be the only 

 interest, not only of this pair, but 

 of half the officers one met in the 

 colony. My present friends were a 

 captain and his subaltern, both of 

 them far older than would be the 

 case in the similar grades in our 

 army, and the captain was pretty 

 well furnished with adipose tissue. 

 Probably both of them had risen 

 from the ranks ; at any rate, their 

 intellectual training was not of a 

 very high order, and their ability as 

 horsemen was on a par with it. 

 172 



