enough to show you what an adventure it was to
me.

For a little while we played with my two medals,
and, with the delicacy of a sleeping companion,
David abstained on this occasion from asking why
one of them was not a Victoria Cross. He is very
troubled because I never won the Victoria Cross,
for it lowers his status in the Gardens. He never
says in the Gardens that I won it, but he fights
any boy of his year who says I didn't. Their fight-
ing consists of challenging each other.

At twenty-five past six I turned on the hot
water in the bath, and covertly swallowed a small
glass of brandy. I then said, "Half-past six; time
for little boys to be in bed." I said it in the
matter-of-fact voice of one made free of the com-
pany of parents, as if I had said it often before, and
would have to say it often again, and as if there
was nothing particularly delicious to me in hearing
myself say it. I tried to say it in that way.

And David was deceived. To my exceeding joy
he stamped his little foot, and was so naughty that,
in gratitude, I gave him five minutes with a match-
box. Matches, which he drops on the floor when
lighted, are the greatest treat you can give David;
indeed, I think his private heaven is a place with
a roaring bonfire.

Then I placed my hand carelessly on his shoul-
der, like one a trifle bored by the dull routine of

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