He, as well as his comrades, took her to be the lady of the house.
"We ask your pardon, madame, for this intrusion," said Colonel Winchester, "but we are compelled to occupy your house a while.

We promise you as little trouble as possible." "We ask no consideration of any kind from men who have come to despoil our country and ruin its people," she said icily.
Colonel Winchester flushed.
"But madame," he protested, "we do not come to destroy." "I do not care to argue with you about it," she said in the same lofty tone, "and also you need not address me as madame.

I am Miss Woodville." Dick started.
"Does this house belong to Colonel John Woodville ?" he asked.
"It does not," she replied crisply, "but it belongs to his elder brother, Charles Woodville, who is also a colonel, and who is my father.
What do you know of Colonel John Woodville ?" "I met his son once," replied Dick briefly.
She glanced at him sharply.

Dick thought for a moment that he saw alarm in her look, but he concluded that it was only anger.
They stood confronting each other, the little group of officers and the woman, and Colonel Winchester, embarrassed, but knowing that he must do something, went forward and pushed back a door opening into the hall.
Dick automatically followed him, and then stepped back, startled.
A roar like that of a lion met them.

An old man, with a high, bald and extremely red forehead lay in a huge bed by a window.