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 arranged this table beforehand. It seems that there had been one seat vacant, and the General had gaily brought along Fluffy. The other ladies were frightfully indignant when they saw the soiled finery, and it was from them that the questions first began to pass around the ship, 'Who is Mrs. Simpkin-Briston?' and 'Where, and who is, or who was Mr. Simpkin-Briston?' Neither of these questions found an answer, and the lady herself, it seems, had not thrown any light upon the matter, though the ladies who had had to talk to her had done their best. Now, she had taken up my Sword Boy from Sandhurst very warmly from the start, and he was her devoted champion. I questioned him as we neared Port Said. 'Do you know who Mrs. Simpkin-Briston is?' I asked.

'Who she is?' he repeated. It only just seemed to have struck him that this was rather a natural question to ask. Then he frowned. 'She's a very charming woman,' was all he said.

I felt crushed, positively crushed, by this boy from Sandhurst, with his loyalty and trust. I was half annoyed, half proud of him. 'And who is Mr. Simpkin-Briston?' I was rash enough to pursue the subject, half to see what he would say. 'She hasn't told me,' was all he said, 'and, of course, I haven't asked.' But the look he turned towards me made me forbear to ask him anything further about the Simpkin-Bristons, and I am not one to be easily put off.