The garden wall was high, yet not so high but that any young lady bent
on attracting the notice of her neighbours could look over it. Miss
Dot indeed regarded an outside flight of steps which led to an upper
storey as an appointed amelioration to the hours which she was
expected to spend in the garden, for it was an easy scramble from the
stairs to the top of the wall, whence she could survey the world. To
be sure the wall was narrow as well as high, but a timorous gait shows
off a pretty figure, and slight nervousness adds a pathetic expression
to a pretty face; to both of which advantages Dot was not, it is to be
believed, altogether indifferent when khaki coats dwelt the other side
of that wall.
On this particular day she was trying to attract notice in so
unrestrained a manner that her mother remarked it from an upper
window. But mothers, we are told in these latter days, are not always
the wisest guardians of their "flapper" daughters. This mother had a
decided _penchant_ for a khaki coat herself; only she demanded braid
on the cuff and a smartly cut collar, and these she would greet in the
street with a tender act of homage which rarely failed to win admiring
attention. But for a daughter who would dash down the road after a
Tommy she had contempt rather than disapproval. So she watched with
interest, but, alas! with no idea of interference.
At first there were only "civvies" about, and though the admiration
of any youthful male was dear to Dot's heart, and though chaff and
blandishments were not wanting, still the wall _was_ high, and she
lacked the resolve to descend. But presently two khaki coats appeared
and the matter grew more serious. It was evident that it was not
principle or modesty that held her back, but just timidity, for she
responded eagerly to the advances of her admirers, but could not quite
pluck up courage for that long jump down. Affairs grew shameless, for
the khaki coats fetched a ladder to assist the elopement; but Dot made
it clear that there were difficulties in that method of flight, though
she wished there were not. At last she was enticed to a lower portion
of the wall, and there, half screened by shrubs, she was lifted off by
the shoulders, deliciously reluctant, and received into the cordial
embrace of an enthusiastic soldiery.
And her mother retired to the sofa!
Shortly afterwards musketry instruction was proceeding in a public
place; and behind the little group of learners sat Dot, in the seventh
heaven of joy, drinking it all in with eager attention. And the
instructing officer did not seem to mind.
"How sad and mad and bad it was," a theme for the moralist, the
conscientious objector, the Army reformer, the social reformer, the
statistician. Yet perhaps even their solemn faces might relax to-day
at the sight of a long-legged Airedale puppy marching at the head of
the battalion to which she has appointed herself mascot.
* * * * *