r they are introduced they
begin a flirtation. There is a lieutenant Pendleton here for whom I am
sure I am the twenty-seventh, so skilful is he in his operations. I have
known him two days, and I expect him to propose tomorrow. There are three
others who are only a day, or at most two days, behind. You know them,
the dashing, fascinating kind.

Another officer, Lt. Pendleton's captain, named Kirby, I cannot quite
make out. He doesn't make love; he discusses tactics with the colonel.
Yet he comes quite regularly, and keeps me in sight. He seems grimmer,
more tenacious than the others; I'm glad he gives his time to the Colonel
rather than to me. His voice has a curious quality, a most unmilitary
gentleness. Pendleton, when he gets you in a corner, purrs to you alone;
yet you feel that he has claws. His voice rings on the parade ground; I'm
sure of it. I can't make out what Captain Kirby's would sound like. There
is a deceptive sympathy to it, deceptive because I feel in him much
purpose. When an army officer can't flirt he either likes his profession
too little or he likes it too much.

* * * * *

Sep. 14.

This morning, on our little porch, I was sitting sewing behind the vines
when Captain Kirby came marching his company onto the parade ground
before the house. And then I learned what his voice was like, my dear.
Not gentle at all; very deep, very strong, curiously resonant, as if he
were shouting through a trumpet. And how do you suppose he treated his
men, so many of whom are gentlemen, or older than he, or earning bigger
salaries. Like schoolboys! I first saw him when he was standing out in
front of them, holding in his hand, swinging by the strap, a rifle that
he must have taken from one of them. Said he: "When you're at route step,
I want you not to carry your guns like suit-cases. You aren't a gang of
porters. If I had the money I'd tip you all; but cut out this red-cap
stuff. And don't carry it _so_." He put it across his shoulders, pointing
right and left. "You'll put out the eye of the man on your right, and
bash the ear of the man on your left. Now remember, Nature is a great
provider. She has made shoulders specially for the carrying of rifles.
Carry your rifle on one shoulder or the other, or hang them by the straps
from one shoulder or the other. And by no other way." As if they had to
obey him in