"And a man has in a great degree. Talk about variety—we men are the bigger butterfly of the two. However, it served as a salve for my hurt feelings!"
"Were they hurt?" asked Maynadier, amused.
"What would yours be, if Captain Herford were preferred to you?" laughing.
And Maynadier joined in the laugh.
"He is a queer fellow," Parkington went on. "It is not exactly ill-nature; it is more of a disposition to quarrel with everything—of never being suited. In short, a chronic grumbler. He came out to me, the other morning, with the well developed intention of picking a quarrel—we would have been scraping rapiers, in a minute, if I had wished. Instead, I simply ignored his manner, and laughed him into a decent humor. Has he such a way with every one?"
"Yes—we understand him, and do not mind. He is a good fellow, when you get past his eccentricities."
"But one cannot be always side-stepping," said Parkington. "Some time, he will run against a man with similar tendencies—and then, there will be a little blood-letting, may be, a death."
"You see, in your case," said Maynadier, "you have touched him on the raw. Miss Stirling is a tender point with him."
Parkington smiled. "Which made me all the more careful to avoid trouble.—He is a good officer, I am told."