“No, sir,” with a musical sadness in her voice, touching as it was natural.
“No father?” asked the Major with as much delicacy as he could put the question.
“No, sir.”
“No brothers, neither, I dare say.”
“No, sir.”
“Nor sisters, either?”
“No, sir.”
“Ho! hah, hem!”
And the Major, having finished catechising her, put his hands behind his back and looked steadily in the grate for full a minute, his lips compressed, his brow set and thoughtful.
“If you please, sir, the bill is waiting.”