"
"Please try —" said Thorold contentedly, resting his elbow in
a soft cushion of moss.
"Mr. Thorold, I told you, I am a soldier."
"Yes," he said, looking up at me, and little sparkles of light
seeming to come out of his hazel eyes.
"I showed you my orders."
"But I did not understand them to be what you said."
"Suppose you were in an enemy's country," I said; — "a rebel
country; and your orders were, to do nothing which could be
construed into encouraging the rebels, or which could help
them to think that your king would hold friendship with them,
or that there was not a perfect gulf of division between you
and them."
"But this is not such a case?" said Thorold.
"That is only part," I said. "Suppose your orders were, to
keep constant watch and hold yourself at every minute ready
for duty, and to go nowhere and do nothing that would unfit
you for instant service, or put you off your watch."
"But, Miss Randolph!" said Thorold, a little impatiently — "do
these little dances unfit you for duty?"
"Yes," I said.
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