Nevertheless, there was much liveliness and good fellowship at the fort.  Captains and lieutenants down to the youngest “cub,” Forsyth, vied with each other to please the Englishmen, supplied them with that characteristic American humor and anecdote which it is an Englishman’s privilege to bring away with him, and were picturesquely and chivalrously devoted in their attentions to the ladies, who were pleased and amused by it, though it is to be doubted if it increased their respect for the giver, although they were more grateful for it than the average American woman.  Lady Elfrida found the officers very entertaining and gallant.  Accustomed to the English officer, and his somewhat bored way of treating his profession and his duties, she may have been amused at the zeal, earnestness, and enthusiasm of these youthful warriors, who aspired to appear as nothing but soldiers, when she contrasted them with her Guardsmen relatives who aspired to be everything else but that; but she kept it to herself.  It was a recognized, respectable, and even superior occupation for gentlemen in England; what it might be in America,—­who knows?  She certainly found Peter, the civilian, more attractive, for there really was nothing English to compare him with, and she had something of the same feeling in her friendship for Jenny, except the patronage which Jenny seemed to solicit, and perhaps require, as a foreigner.

One afternoon the English guests, accompanied by a few of their hosts and a small escort, were making a shooting expedition to the vicinity of Green Spring, when Peter, plunged in his report, looked up to find his sister entering his office.  Her face was pale, and there was something in her expression which reawakened his old anxiety.  Nevertheless he smiled, and said gently:—­

“Why are you not enjoying yourself with the others?”

“I have a headache,” she said, languidly, “but,” lifting her eyes suddenly to his, “why are you not?  You are their good friend, you know,—­even their relation.”

“No more than you are,” he returned, with affected gayety.  “But look at the report—­it is only half finished!  I have already been shirking it for them.”

“You mustn’t let your devotion to the Indians keep you from your older friends,” said Mrs. Lascelles, with an odd laugh.  “But you never told me about these people before, Peter; tell me now.  They were very kind to you, weren’t they, on account of your relationship?”

“Entirely on account of that,” said Peter, with a sudden bitterness he could not repress.  “But they are very pleasant,” he added quickly, “and very simple and unaffected, in spite of their rank; perhaps I ought to say, because of it.”

“You mean they are kind to us because they feel themselves superior,—­just as you are kind to the Indians, Peter.”

“I am afraid they have no such sense of political equality towards us, Jenny, as impels me to be just to the Indian,” he said with affected lightness.  “But Lady Elfrida sympathizes with the Indians—­very much.”