The officer shrugged his shoulders. He felt that he had already said too much, more, certainly, than was prudent for an officer in the army, where feudal notions of propriety still exist.
Garwood came out of the House in response to the lieutenant’s card. The air of serious and official demeanor with which he had prepared to listen to importunities about some of the army’s constant appropriation bills or reorganization bills, relaxed into one of surprise and friendliness when he saw Dade standing by the side of the young officer, and it expanded into a smile of much insinuation as he bowed low and took the girl’s hand.
“I’m delighted, I’m sure,” he said.
She presented the lieutenant, and the men bowed.
“I’ve met Lieutenant Beck before,” Garwood said. “Glad to meet him again—always glad to meet the officers of our little army, aren’t we, Miss Dade?”
He was red and perspiring, and stretched his neck now and then, that he might press his handkerchief below his collar.
“We have been listening to yo’ speech, Mistuh Gahwood,” Dade said. “Ah hadn’t heahd yo’ speak since that night befo’ the election. Do yo’ remembuh?”
“Oh, yes,” the congressman replied, and he laughed. “That seems years ago, doesn’t it?”
“Not to me,” she corrected him.
Garwood bowed, intensely.