Against all manner of people and happenings the Major joyfully pitted his force and cunning. His only thought in a great crisis was his six-shooter; but he always hesitated before anything which concerned Mrs. Searles and a military order. These impelled obedience from the very nature of things. "But what has happened? What must I do?"
"You must sit down," said his wife; and he sat down. Affairs of this kind could be cleared only by women; he was conscious that he could not hurry matters.
"Now what has happened, Katherine? Will you tell me? Who did it?" pleaded the mother.
"Why, it is nothing, only that horrible scout wanted to marry me. Did you ever hear anything so ridiculous?" said the girl, sitting up and made defiant by the idea.
"Did he do anything?" and the Major again forgot his orders and rose truculently.
"Benjamin!" said Mrs. Searles, with asperity; and he again subsided. Like most soldiers and sailors, he was imperfectly domesticated.
"He wanted to marry you?" she continued with questioning insistence.
"Yes, he said I must marry him; that God wanted me to, and he also said he had lost his mind—"
"Well, I think he has," observed the mother, catching this idea, which was at least tangible to her. "Is that all, Katherine?"
"Is that all, mother? Why, isn't that enough?"