“Yes, it’s different with an Ame’ican gyrl, yo’ know; they won’t be watched, and Ah escaped.”
Dade had raised her arms to her head, with a graceful preliminary flourish to loosen her sleeves at the elbows, and was withdrawing the pins that fastened her hat. Emily noticed that the pins were all headed with army buttons, with the “C” on their bright little shields that told of the despoilment of some cavalryman’s forage cap. She connected these with the buckle Dade wore on her belt, the plain buckle of the West Point cadet’s belt, though over the washed gold of this one was a monogram of the initials of Dade’s name, “D.E.,” in silver.
“Ahthu’ says——” Dade began, stabbing the pins back into the hat, and flinging it beside her on the couch, “Oh, Em, he’s the deahest man—pe’fectly scrumptious! Ah must tell yo’ abaout him.”
And she began a celebration of the young soldier, setting him in what was to her the picturesque atmosphere of a western army post, and drawing once more, in all its details, the picture she had imagined of him, booted and spurred and gauntleted, riding forth with his dusty troopers clattering behind to do the ungentle deeds that somehow have always filled the mind of the gentler sex with a sentimental pleasure.
“And oh,” she said, “Ah must tell yo’ abaout his being o’dehed to proceed along the South Fo’k of the—something-oah-othah—Ah must write to-day and get the name of that rivah—all hidden by cottonwoods along its banks, just lak in the books, yo’ know—and destroy all Piegan Indians. He was a shavetail then, and didn’t know a Piegan Indian from a Sioux, and he nea’ly brought on a wah. If it hadn’t been fo’ his old first se’geant—Oh, his men all love him, Ah know—eve’ybody does!”
And so she flowed on, while Emily sat and listened with the mellowed smile of an indulgence almost motherly.
“And we ah going to live in Washington at first, he’s General—What’s-his-name’s aide now, yo’ know. That’s why he’s allowed to weah aiguillettes; Ah must show them to yo’ in his photograph. But when he’s changed, we’ll probably have to go to some weste’n post. Think of mah living aout theah—an ahmy woman! Ah’ll have an Indian to cook fo’ us, and yo’ and Je—Mistuh Gahwood must come aout and visit us. He can get himself appointed on a committee to inspect ahmy posts, yo’ know, yo’ all can save lots of money that way. Ah’ve grown economical since Ah’m going to mah’y an ahmy officeh. They get awfully small salaries; it’s a shame. But Mistuh Gahwood can have himself put on the committee——”
“I’m afraid Washington has corrupted you, Dade,” said Emily.
“Corrupted me?” the girl repeated. “Co’se it has, it corrupts eve’ybody. That’s what eve’ybody does down theah. It’s all pull—that’s the way Ahthu’ got his detail as aide.”
Emily’s face had lost its smile, and had sobered.