157 



A GOOD THING 



CHAPTEE I 



If it be not absolutely correct to say that there are black 

 sheep in every fold, it is a fact that in very few folds are 

 the sheep all of immaculate whiteness. Some, at least, 

 are likely to be tinted. The division lines between 

 cunning and dishonesty are, in fact, often much narrower 

 than those who pride themselves on their wariness are 

 ready to admit ; a man may, that is, keep the letter of the 

 law and break the spirit. The proceedings of Captain 

 Claude Upton, of H.M. Hundred-and-ninth Lancers, 

 furnish a case in point. Upton would have furiously 

 resented the imputation that he ever did anything detri- 

 mental to his character as an officer and a gentleman ; but 

 he had his own code of morality, and it was one that would 

 scarcely have found acceptance with scrupulous people. 

 Such men are rare in the British cavalry ; the sheep are 

 white as a rule ; indeed, a roll-call of regiments could be 

 named where, beneath a modern cheery lightheartedness 

 and goodfellowship, which makes the officers the most 

 delightful of companions, the veritable spirit of Bayard lies 

 hidden ; but Upton and one or two others in the same 

 corps were of different mental mould from this. It was 

 in his barrack-room, on a certain afternoon in early 

 December, that he and his friends sat smoking. 



