"Indeed—ah-aw—you think so?" drawled Cosmo, with his glass in his sinister eye, as he surveyed the major with a glance of somewhat mingled cast.
"I do, colonel," was the emphatic rejoinder.
"He has disappeared at all events—a dubious phrase. If the fellow has not levanted to the Duke of Dalmatia with General Hope's despatch, may his heart not have failed him? may he not have shown the white feather? Better men than he, among the Belem Rangers, have done so ere now."
The imaginary corps referred to contained one of the most offensive imputations to the ears of Peninsula men; thus Captain Askerne exclaimed—
"Cowardice, Colonel Crawford—would you infer cowardice?"
"I infer nothing, gentlemen, but that better men than he have shown the white feather."
"Not in the Line, that I am aware of," was the somewhat pointed remark of Middleton; and Cosmo, who had lately come from the Guards, crimsoned with suppressed passion.
"A volunteer is a soldier of fortune, and none such can ever be a coward," said Askerne, stoutly.
"Of course not—the idea is absurd," added Middleton, looking round the group of officers, who glanced their approval.
"You are warm, Major Middleton," said Cosmo, sternly, while his eyes gleamed with their most dangerous expression; "somewhat unnecessarily warm on this trivial subject, I think."