"With the enemy in our midst," said the florid old soldier, "it behoves
every true man--aye, and every true woman--to rally to the defence of the
country; and all honour, say I, to noble ladies such as Mrs. Clifton
Courtenay, who, laying aside their natural shrinking from publicity, come
forward in such a crisis as the present to combat the forces of disorder
and disloyalty now rampant in the land."
"But," some listener would suggest, "I gathered from young Jocelyn that
Mrs. Clifton Courtenay held somewhat advanced views on social and
political questions."
"Jocelyn," the Colonel would reply with scorn; "pah! There may have been
a short space of time during which the fellow's long hair and windy
rhetoric impressed her. But I flatter myself I've put _my_ spoke in Mr.
Jocelyn's wheel. Why, damme, sir, she's consented to stand for Grand
Dame of the Bermondsey Branch of the Primrose League next year. What's
Jocelyn to say to that, the scoundrel!"