Even the troops who hitherto swarmed about the town had gradually been removed from billets to a vast camp of huts some miles away, and appeared only sporadically about the place.

I missed them and the stimulus of their presence.

They brought me into closer touch with things.

Marigold, too, pined for more occupation for his one critical eye than was afforded by the local volunteers.

He grew morose, sick of a surfeit of newspapers.