“Pardon, Mademoiselle Jeanne. You are quite right. But it’s not a question of what I was born to be—but what I was trained to be. I wasn’t trained to be a soldier. But I do my best.”
She looked at him waveringly.
“Forgive me, mademoiselle.”
“But you flash out on the point of honour.”
Doggie laughed. “Which shows that I have the essential of the soldier.”
Doggie’s manner was not without charm. She relented.
“You know very well what I mean,” she said rebukingly. “And you don’t deserve that I should tell it to you. It was my intention to say that you have sacrificed many things to make yourself a simple soldier.”
“Only a few idle habits,” said Doggie.
“You joined, like the rest, as a volunteer.”