"For making you at all, mam!" Having said which, he wheeled suddenly, and took three quick strides away but, hearing her call, he turned and took three slow ones back again. "Well, mam?" he enquired, staring at the pincers.
"'Tis a hot day, Sergeant!" she laughed. At this he stood silent awhile, lost in contemplation of her dexterous hands.
"Egad!" he exclaimed, suddenly, "'Tis a beautiful finger!"
"Is it, Sergeant?"
"For a trigger—aye mam. To shoot straight a man must have a true eye, mam, but he must also have a shooting-hand, quick and light o' the finger, d'ye see, not to spoil alignment. If you'd been a man, now, you'd ha' handled a musket wi' the best if you'd only been a man——"
"But I'm—only a woman."
"True, mam, true—'tis Natur' again—fault o' circumstance——"
"And I don't want to be a man——"
"Certainly not, mam——"
"And wouldn't if I could!"