"Laws, ma'am! never do in the world to bring frozen people into a hot car! Sure to make their ears an' noses drop off, that would! Got to keep 'em in the cold and pile snow around 'em. That gentleman sittin' here,—he knows," he continued: "he's an officer, and him and the doctor's workin' with 'em now."
And Mrs. Rayner, vanquished by a statement of facts well known to her yet forgotten in the first impetuosity of her criticism, relapsed into the silence of temporary defeat.
"He is an officer, then," said Miss Travers, presently. "I wonder what he belongs to."
"Not to our regiment, I'm sure. Probably to the cavalry. He knew Major Stannard and other officers whom we passed there."
"Did he speak to them?"
"No: there was no time. We were beyond hearing-distance when he ran to the back door of the car; and there was no time before that. But it's very odd!"
"What's very odd?"
"Why, his conduct. It is so strange that he has not made himself known to us, if he's an officer."
"Probably he doesn't know you—or we—are connected with the army, Kate."
"Oh, yes, he does. The porter knows perfectly well, and I told him just before he left."