some corps or another—as combatants if we're fit, as non-combatants if we ain't—till we're thirty-five we don't vote, and we don't get poor-relief, and the women don't love us.'
'Oh, that's the compulsion of it?' said I.
Bayley inclined his head gravely. 'That, Sir, is the compulsion. We voted the legal part of it ourselves in a fit of panic, and we have not yet rescinded our resolution! The women attend to the unofficial penalties. But being free British citizens'
'And snobs,' put in Pigeon.
'The point is well taken, Pij—we have supplied ourselves with every sort and shape and make of Volunteer corps that you can imagine, and we've mixed the whole show up with our Oddfellows and our I.O.G.T.'s and our Buffaloes, and our Burkes and our Debretts, not to mention Leagues and Athletic Clubs, till you can't tell t'other from which. You remember the young pup who used to look on soldiering as a favour done to his ungrateful country—the gun-poking, ferret-pettin', landed gentleman's offspring—the suckin' Facey Romford? Well, he generally joins a Foreign Service Corps when he leaves college.'
'Can Volunteers go foreign then?'
'Can't they just, if their C.O. or his wife has influence! The Armity will always send a well-connected F.S. corps out to help a Guard battalion in a small campaign. Otherwise F.S. corps make their own arrangements about camps. You see, the Military Areas are always open. They can "heef" there (and gamble on head-money) as long
