The old man never dared to try, but was pleased with the
younger's spirit and gallantry in the series of final actions which,
commencing over poor little Rosey's prostrate body in the dressing-room,
were continued in the drawing-room, resumed with terrible vigour on the
enemy's part in the dining-room, and ended, to the triumph of the whole
establishment, at the outside of the hall-door.
When the routed Tartar force had fled back to its native north, Rosey
made a confession, which Clive told me afterwards, bursting with bitter
laughter. "You and papa seem to be very much agitated," she said. (Rosey
called the Colonel papa in the absence of the Campaigner.) "I do not mind
it a bit, except just at first, when it made me a little nervous. Mamma
used always to be so; she used to scold and scold all day, both me and
Josey, in Scotland, till grandmamma sent her away; and then in Fitzroy
Square, and then in Brussels, she used to box my ears, and go into such
tantrums; and I think," adds Rosey, with one of her sweetest smiles, "she
had quarrelled with Uncle James before she came to us.
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