Page:Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, Kipling, 1899.djvu/38

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24
A CODE OF MORALS

The artless Aide-de-camp was mute; the gilded Staff were still,
As, dumb with pent-up mirth, they booked that message from the hill;
For clear as summer-lightning flare, the husband's warning ran:—
"Don't dance or ride with General Bangs—a most immoral man."


[At dawn, across the Hurrum Hills, he flashed her counsel wise—
But, howsoever Love be blind, the world at large hath eyes.]
With damnatory dot and dash he heliographed his wife
Some interesting details of the General's private life.


The artless Aide-de-camp was mute; the shining Staff were still,
And red and ever redder grew the General's shaven gill.
And this is what he said at last (his feelings matter not):—
"I think we've tapped a private line. Hi! Threes about there! Trot!"