The table was silent.

Colonel Pierson was a gentleman, but a false position and the irritating topic deprived him of proper self-command.
"What would you do ?" he said, not gallantly.
Emilia would have been glad to have been allowed to subside, but the tone stung her.
"I could not do much; I am a woman," said she.
Whereto the colonel: "It's only the women who do anything over there." "And that is why you flog them!" The colonel, seeing himself surrounded by ladies, lost the right guidance of his wits, at this point, reddened, and was saved by an Irish outcry of horror from some unpleasant and possibly unmanly retort.

"Mr.
Paricles said exactly the same.

Oh, sir! do ye wear an officer's uniform to go about behavin' in that shockin' way to poor helpless females ?" This was the first time Mrs.Chump had ever been found of service at the Brookfield dining-table.

Colonel Pierson joined the current smile, and the matter passed.
He was affectionate with Wilfrid, and invited him to Verona, with the assurance that his (the Austrian) school of cavalry was the best in the world.