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A large, watery-eyed man, with florid cheeks, clad in a long overcoat with spots down the front, came in at the door and passed through the room bowing and smiling to the men. Taking Ed by the arm he disappeared into a little barroom, where Sam could hear him talking in low tones. After a little while the florid-faced man came and put his head through the barroom door into the office.
One of the trifles that have remained embedded in my memory from those days is the image of a big, florid-faced huckster shouting at the top of his husky voice: "Strawberri-i-ies, strawberri-i-ies, five cents a quart!"
"Then I beg your pardon for the mistake, sir," Hal replied quickly. "No need to apologize, Sergeant, for you have done no harm," replied the florid-faced man. Here Captain Cortland's voice broke in, cool and steady: "Yet I know, Mr. Draney, that Sergeant Overton feels embarrassed by the mere fact of his having made a mistake.
"I never had occasion to think," the young doctor replied, scrutinizing a heavy, florid-faced young man whom he took to be Caspar Porter. "Well, polo is with us at breakfast and dinner. Papa doesn't approve, doesn't believe in young men keeping a stable as Caspar does. Mamma doesn't know what she believes. I am arbitrator it's terrible, the new generation," she broke off whimsically.
"Have you had a job to-day, Tim?" inquired a well-known legal gentleman of the equally well-known, jolly, florid-faced old drayman, who, rain or shine, summer or winter, is rarely absent from his post. "Bedad, I did, sor." "How many?" "Only two, sor." "How much did you get for both?" "Sivinty cints, sor." "Seventy cents!
The next forenoon as Hephzibah and I were reclining in our deck-chairs the captain himself, florid-faced, gray-bearded, gold-laced and grand, halted before us. "I believe your name is Knowles, sir," he said, raising his cap. "It is," I replied. I wondered what in the world was coming next. Was he going to take me to task for talking with his second officer?
He took the pamphlet from Sam's hand and put it in his pocket. "I'm a socialist," he explained, "but don't say anything. Ed's against 'em." The men filed back into the room, each with a freshly-lighted cigar in his mouth, and the florid-faced man followed them and went out at the office door. "Well, so long, boys," he shouted heartily.
Then turning to his adjutant: "Barker, have Sergeant Fitzroy sent for at once." Another moment and a trig, well-groomed soldier, florid-faced, muscular, yet burly in build, stepped briskly in and "stood attention." His right eye and cheek were still heavily bruised and discolored. His nose was somewhat swollen. The colonel had looked upon him with sombre eyes the night of the dance.
It appeared to annoy the florid-faced man. "Well, my man," he cried impatiently, looking keenly at Hal, "are you waiting to say something to me?" "No, sir," Sergeant Hal replied quickly. "Perhaps you thought you knew me?" "No, sir; I merely remembered having once seen you." "You've seen me before? Then your memory is better than mine, Sergeant. Where have you ever seen me before?"
There is hardly time for salutations. A gray-headed, keen-eyed, florid-faced old soldier is the colonel, and he is snapping with electricity, apparently. "This way, Hull. Come right here, and I'll show you what you are to do." And, followed by Rayner, Hull, and Hayne, the chief rides sharply over to the extreme left of the position and points to the frowning ridge across the intervening swale.
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