There was a thinly veiled sneer in the words as he spoke them, but I curbed my temper.
“Well, in my judgment, sir,—and I tell it you because I deem it a duty,—” I retorted plainly, “you are making a grave mistake which you may realize when it becomes too late to rectify it. Possibly I have no right to criticise one who is technically in command; yet I am serving as a volunteer, and the conditions are peculiar. I not only remember the scene witnessed by me in the lines out yonder, but also recall the fact that we are here to fulfil a sacred duty—the defence of helpless women from outrage. A fatal mistake upon our part would be horrible.”
“Your deep interest in the welfare of the ladies is purely chivalric, I presume?”
“It is merely the interest a true soldier must always feel,” I responded, determined not to be goaded into quarrel. “I have neither wife nor sister, but I have a mother.”
“Very well, sir,”—and his tone was rough and overbearing,—“then kindly recall your soldierly instincts to another little matter. I chance to command here by authority of rank, and hold myself responsible for the proper defence of this portion of the house. I believe you have already been assigned your duties; if you will attend to them I shall be greatly obliged, and whenever I may desire your valuable advice I shall take pleasure in sending for you.”
I have often wondered since how I controlled myself; yet I did, biting my lip till the blood came, a fair, reproachful face ever before my eyes.
“I shall obey your orders,” I managed to say with calmness, so soon as I could control my voice to speak at all, “but shall hold myself, and my men, prepared for a call here at any moment.”
“As you please,” with an ill-suppressed sneer. “I have always found you exceedingly anxious to be with the ladies. Indeed I have wondered if you might not prove a modern illustration of that ancient worthy 'whose best boast was but to wear a braid of his fair lady's hair.'”
I turned away in silence and strode back to my post, white with anger. The dining-room remained as I had left it, and when I lay down in my old position and peered out throught the broken blind, I could mark no change in the appearance of our besiegers.