Thus it was
that, when the colonel came to inspect the posts, he found two sentinels
at each, pertaining to different sexes. Returning to his sister-in-law
on the verandah, he explained to that lady the peculiar difficulty of
his position.
"You see, my deah sistah, that this is altogetheh contyahy to militahy
discipline, and I ought to ordeh all undeh ahhest, but, were I to do so,
madam, where would my sentinels come from?" Miss Du Plessis perceived
the difficulty, as she handled the colonel's silver-mounted revolver,
with an air of old practice; and proceeded to ask what her
brother-in-law knew of the young gentleman who was furnishing Cecile
with information of the fight. Thereupon the colonel launched out into a
panegyric of the dominie's noble qualities, imputing to him all that
Coristine had done on his behalf, and a chivalrous Southern exaggeration
of the school-master's learning and expressions of sympathy. "Marjorie
appears to think more highly of the other pedestrian," remarked Mrs. Du
Plessis, to which Colonel Morton replied that Mr. Coristine was indeed a
handsome and excellent young man, but lacked the correct bearing and
dignified courtesy of his friend, and, he should judge, was much his
inferior in point of education.
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