The sickness in the
out-villages spread, the Bazar was put out of bounds, and then
came the news that the Tail Twisters must go into camp. The
message flashed to the Hill stations. 'Cholera Leave stopped
Officers recalled.' Alas for the white gloves in the neatly-soldered
boxes, the rides and the dances and picnics that were to be, the
loves half spoken, and the debts unpaid! Without demur and
without question, fast as tonga could fly or pony gallop, back to
their Regiments and their Batteries, as though they were hastening
to their weddings, fled the subalterns.
Bobby received his orders on returning from a dance at Viceregal
Lodge where he had But only the Haverley girl knows what Bobby
had said, or how many waltzes he had claimed for the next ball.
Six in the morning saw Bobby at the Tonga Office in the
drenching rain, the whirl of the last waltz still in his ears, and an
intoxication due neither to wine nor waltzing in his brain.
'Good man!' shouted Deighton of the Horse Battery through the
mist. 'Whar you raise dat tonga? I'm coming with you. Ow! But I've
a head and a half. I didn't sit out all night. They say the Battery's
awful bad,' and he hummed dolorously
Leave the what at the what's-its-name,
Leave the flock without shelter,
Leave the corpse uninterred,
Leave the bride at the altar!
'My faith! It'll be more bally corpse than bride, though, this
journey.
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