“Really, Mrs. Headley,” interrupted the young officer, little divining to what all this was to tend, and feeling not altogether at his ease, from the abruptness with which the subject had been introduced, “I feel as I ought, the interest you profess to take in me, but how is that connected either with my asserted absence, or the reproof it entailed?”
“It is so far connected with it, that I wish to point out the means by which any unpleasant result may be avoided!”
“Unpleasant result! Mrs. Headley?”
“Yes, unpleasant result, for I have too good an opinion of you not to believe that any thing tending to destroy the harmony of our very limited society, would be considered such by you.”
“I am all attention, Madam. Pray, proceed.”
“The pithiness of your manner does not afford me much encouragement yet I will not be diverted from my purpose, even by that. You have had the Commandant's lecture,” she continued, with an attempt at pleasantry, “and now you must prepare yourself for (pardon the coinage of the term) that of the Commandantess.”
“The plot thickens,” said the ensign, somewhat sharply—“both the husband and the wife. Jupiter Tonans and Juno the Superb in judgment upon poor me in succession. Ah! that is too bad. But seriously, Mrs. Headley, I shall receive with all due humility, whatever castigation you may choose to inflict.”
“No castigation I assure you, Ronayne, but wholesome advice from one, who, recollect, is nearly old enough to be your mother. However, you shall hear and then decide for yourself.”
“Although,” she pursued, after a short pause, “we women are supposed to know nothing of those matters, it would be difficult, in a small place like this, to be ignorant of what is going on. Hence it is that I have long since remarked, with pain and sorrow, the little animosity which exists between Headley and yourself—(I will not introduce Mr. Elmsley's name, because what I have to say has no immediate reference to him), and the almost daily widening breach. Now, Ronayne, I would appeal to your reason. Place yourself for a moment in my husband's position. Consider his years, nearly double your own—his great responsibility and the peculiar school of discipline in which he has been brought up. Place yourself, I repeat, in his position, and decide what would be your sentiments if, in the conscientious discharge of your duty, you thought yourself thwarted by those very men—much your juniors both in years and military experience—on whose co-operation you had every fair reason to rely.”
“You have, my dear Mrs. Headley, put the case forcibly yet simply.” returned the ensign, who had listened with marked deference to the whole of her remonstrance. “In such a case I should feel no slight annoyance, but why imagine that I have sought to thwart Captain Headley?”