"But there's one question of Solomon's he could not answer. . . . The one about the way of a man with . . . Oh, a maid! . . . Ask him what happened before the dawn ninety-six—no, ninety-eight days ago. . . . "
She said to herself: "I can't help it. . . . Oh, I can't help it. . . . "
The ex-sergeant-major was exclaiming happily:
"Oh, no one ever said the captain was one of these thought-readers. . . . It's real solid knowledge of men and things he has. . . . Wonderful how he knows the men considering he was not born in the service. . . . But there, your born gentleman mixes with men all his days and knows them. Down to the ground and inside their puttees. . . . "
Tietjens was looking straight in front of him, his face perfectly expressionless.
"But I bet I got him, . . . " she said to herself and then to the sergeant-major:
"I suppose now an army officer—one of your born gentlemen—when a back-from-leave train goes out from any of the great stations—Paddington, say—to the front. . . . He knows how all the men are feeling. . . . But not what the married women think . . . or the . . . the girl. . . . "
She said to herself: "Damn it, how clumsy I am getting! . . . I used to be able to take his hide off with a word. Now I take sentences at a time. . . . "
She went on with her uninterrupted sentence to Cowley:
"Of course he may never be going to see his only son again, so it makes him sensitive. . . . The officer at Paddington, I mean. . . . "
She said to herself: "By God, if that beast does not
