Well, goodnight, Doolan; I hope you will
tell Mrs. Doolan that the credit is entirely due to me that you are
home at the reasonable hour of one o'clock, instead of dropping in
just in time to change for parade."
"A good fellow," the Doctor said, as he walked on with Bathurst;
"he would never set the Thames on fire; but he is an honest, kindly
fellow. He would make a capital officer if he were on service. His
marriage has been an excellent thing for him. He had nothing to
do before but to pass away his time in the club or mess house, and
drink more than was good for him. But he has pulled himself round
altogether since he married. His wife is a bright, clever little
woman, and knows how to make the house happy for him; if he had
married a lackadaisical sort of a woman, the betting is he would
have gone to the bad altogether."
"I only met him once or twice before," Bathurst said. "You see I
am not here very often, and when I am it is only on business, so
I know a very few people here except those I have to deal with,
and by the time I have got through my business I am generally so
thoroughly out of temper with the pig headed stupidity and obstinacy
of people in general, that I get into my buggy and drive straight
away."
"I fancy you irritate them as much as they irritate you, Bathurst.
Well, here we are; now we will have a quiet cheroot and a peg, to
quiet our nerves after all that din, before we turn in. Let us get
off our coats and collars, and make ourselves comfortable; it is
a proof of the bestial stupidity of mankind that they should wear
such abominations as dress clothes in a climate like this.
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