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" are sad, my Buster," quoth Mummy, as that man of war sat somewhat distrait, toying with his tea-spoon. "Second supper disagree with you at the Ball?"

"I am, Lady," was the reply, "for my young life is blighted, and though, apparently, I sit at tea in your delightful and hospitable drawing-room, in reality I sit among the shattered fragments of my wrecked and ruined career. Second supper never disagrees with me."

"Who is she?" inquired Mummy forthwith.

"Mrs. Crickford-Crocker," confessed the youth.

"Buster! She's nearly old enough to be your mother," said Mummy, and laughed. To appreciate the joke one had to know the General's wife, Mrs. Crickford-Crocker, commonly known as Caledonia—because she was stern and wild. 53