Colonel Fortescue caught himself; he had done what he seldom did—used the wrong word. Mrs. Lawrence struggled feebly to her feet, the divine obstinacy of a loving woman shining in her melancholy eyes.
"Stop!" she cried, "I can't allow any one, even the Colonel of the regiment, to disparage my husband before my face."
"I beg your pardon," said Colonel Fortescue, "I regret the word I used."
Mrs. Lawrence, inclining her head, sank, rather than sat, upon the bench.
"Perhaps I should not have spoken so," she said, in a composed voice, "as my husband was only a private, and you are the Colonel; but I think you understand that I was neither born nor reared to this position."
"I do understand," replied Colonel Fortescue, "and some one has done you a very great wrong in bringing you to this post; but you may depend upon it that neither you nor your child shall suffer for the present, and I hope you will soon be well."
[Illustration: "Neither you nor your child shall suffer for the present.">[
"It is my heart that is more ill than my body," replied Mrs. Lawrence, and the Colonel passed on.