Which is very true, for it is a great gain to the glory of any country to have expert historians.
"We will underrate the French," I said, "for that would depreciate such triumphs as we have achieved in conflict with them."
"You make very little of Americans," she said. "Do you not think that you will also have to reckon with my misguided countrymen?"
"Mere louts," I said, thinking that at last I had found away to provoke her into an expression of her real opinions. "Perchance they might do something if they were trained and properly armed. But, as they are, they cannot withstand the British bayonet."
She looked at me with some curiosity, at which I was gratified, but, in imitation of her own previous example, I had discharged expression from my face.
"I had thought sometimes, Lieutenant Melville," she said, "that you had been moved to sympathy for these people, these rebels."
"Then you are much mistaken, Miss Desmond," I said, "although I hope I am not hard of heart. I am most loyal to the king, and hope for his complete triumph. How could I be otherwise, when you, who are American-born, set me such a noble example?"
"That is but the language of compliment, Lieutenant Melville," she said, "the courtly speech that you have learned in London drawing-rooms, and—pardon me for saying it—means nothing."
"It might mean nothing with other men," I said, losing somewhat of my self-possession, "but it does mean something with me."