Catalina’s face illumined. For the first time it occurred to him that she might be pretty. She forgot the awkward subject, and asked, eagerly:
“Were you in the Boer War?”
“Yes.”
“All through it?”
“Pretty well.”
“Do tell me about it. I never before met any one who had been in the Boer War, and it interested me tremendously.”
“There’s nothing to tell but what you must have read in the papers.”
“I suppose that is an affectation of modesty.”
“Not at all. Nothing is so commonplace as war. There is nothing in it to make conversation about.”
“But you lost such a dreadful number of officers!”