Page:A strange, sad comedy (IA strangesadcomedy00seawiala).pdf/22

10 vantages of birth and station,—advantages which I may, with all modesty, claim, as enjoying them without any merit of my own,—but a man like yourself, of honorable, though humble parentage, who possesses a sturdy independence of spirit to which, I may say, my friend with the violent brogue is a stranger."

The lanky sergeant, who had a dry, Puritanical humor of his own, was immensely tickled at this, and, at the same time, profoundly respectful of a man who could enter into disquisitions respecting what constituted a gentleman while his goods were being confiscated under his very nose.

"I tell you what," said he, becoming quite friendly and confidential with the Colonel, "there 's a fellow with our command,—an Englishman,—and he 's got the same name as yours—Corbin—only he's got a handle to it. He is Sir Archibald Corbin, and I never see a young man so like an old one as he is like you. He just seems to me to be your very image. He ain't reg'larly attached nor nothin'; he's just one of them aide'campers. He might be your son. Hain't you got any son?"

At this, little Miss Letty, who had kept in the background clinging to Miss Jemima, came