imply changed his
tactics. He avoided the store, he shunned conversations on dangerous
topics, he cultivated the society of Colonel Whaling, and deeply
impressed that veteran with the depth of his information on dogs,
horses, and military affairs. He dexterously lost small sums to the post
commander at pool and billiards; enough to keep the old gentleman in
cigars--and good-humor. He became "serious" in his conversation with
the colonel's amiable wife, whose exemplary habit it was to be always
found seated at a little table behind a very big Bible when visitors
called; though the garrison _did_ say, as garrisons will, that
occasionally they had to knock or ring half a dozen times before the
summons could be heard; not because the good lady was so deeply plunged
in religious meditation, but because the clatter of angry tongues made
all demonstration from without simply inaudible.

The long-suffering and short-serving domestics who successively reigned
in the Whaling kitchen and chambers were wont to say that it was nag and
scold from morn till dewy eve,--sometimes later,--and that in the midst
of wrathful tirade the lady of the house would only be brought to
instant silence by the announcement of "some one at the door." A certain
Miss Finnegan, who served a brief apprenticeship in the household,
acquired lasting fame in the garrison for the mimetic power which
enabled her to portray "Mrs. Gineral's" instantaneous change from a
posture of fury to one of rapt devotion. She could look like Hecate
Hibernicized, and in one comprehensive second drop into a chair, "smooth
her wrinkled front" and side curls, shake out her rumpled draperies, and
rise from an instant's searching of the Scriptures with features
expressive of the very acme of Christian peace and benediction. "Mrs.
General" was a pet-name the lady had won from a wifely and lovable trait
that prompted her to aggrandize her placid lord above his deserts. Him
she ever addressed (in public), and of him she ever spoke, as "the
general," irrespective of the fact that the rank was one he never had or
never would attain, even by brevet, for the Senate drew the line at the
man who had been in the army through three wars and never heard a
hostile bullet whistle. His regiment had not been required in the
Florida business. He himself was put on other duty when they went to
Mexico, and, finally, in the great war of the Rebellion, there was
constant need of regulars to act as must