Gather she was quite a remarkable
woman--ten years older than Paul."
"Always the case," growled Captain Grigsby.
Sir Charles puffed at his pipe--and then: "They were only together three
weeks," he said. "And during that time she managed to cram more knowledge
of everything into the boy's head than you and I have got in a
lifetime. Give you my word, Grig, when he was off his chump in the fever,
he raved like a poet, and an orator, and he was only an ordinary sportsman
when he left home in the spring! Cleopatra, he called her one day, and I
fancy that was the keynote--she must have been one of those exceptional
women we read of in the sixth form."
"And fortunately never met!" said Captain Grigsby.
"I don't know," mused Sir Charles. "It might have been good to live as
wildly even at the price. We've both been about the world, Grig, since the
days we fastened on our cuirasses together for the first time, and each
thought himself the devil of a fine fellow--but I rather doubt if we now
know as much of what is really worth having as my boy there--just
twenty-three years old."
"Nonsense!" snapped Captain Grigsby--but there was a tone of regret in his
protest.
"Lucky to have got off without a knife or a bullet through him--dangerous
nations to grapple with," he said.
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