Perhaps if I heard your
name----?"
"Oh, I don't suppose you ever heard my name," he said.
"In that case I can never have known you," she answered, calmly. "I
never know any one except by name. I suppose you are an Englishman?"
"Yes," he said, eagerly; "I am in the 5th----"
"Ah, I thought so," she interrupted, placidly. "Englishmen in the 5th,
and some other regiments, are apt to have but the one idea----"
"And that is?"
"And that is a bad one."
He looked at her for a moment, and then, hat in hand, he made her a low
bow, and left her without another word.
"I think he felt ill, and went to have some refreshment," she added,
when she told me.
From what happened afterwards I am sure that at the time she had no
idea of the real significance of the position in which she found
herself placed on this occasion. But, as a rule, if she did or said the
wrong thing, she became painfully conscious of the fact immediately
afterwards--indeed, it was generally _afterwards_ that she grasped
the full meaning of most things. She was ready with repartee without
being in the least quick of understanding; she had to think things
over, and even then she was not sure to do the right thing next time.
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