She had mocked me, treated me as if I was no more than a foolish servant, and my vanity was raw.

I longed to beat down her pride, to make her creep humbly to me, Andrew Garvald, as her only deliverer; and how that should be compassed was the subject of many hot fantasies in my brain.
The dragoon, too, had tossed me about like a silly sheep, and my manhood cried out at the recollection.

What sort of man was I if any lubberly soldier could venture on such liberties?
I went into the business with the monstrous solemnity of youth, and took stock of my equipment as if I were casting up an account.

Many a time in those days I studied my appearance in the glass like a foolish maid.

I was not well featured, having a freckled, square face, a biggish head, a blunt nose, grey, colourless eyes, and a sandy thatch of hair, I had great square shoulders, but my arms were too short for my stature, and--from an accident in my nursing days--of indifferent strength.