ast. He piloted her
skillfully; he jauntily suited his own to her skipping step; he lifted
her with scrupulous politeness over obstacles; strutting beside her on
crowded pavements, he made way for her with his swinging stick. All
the while, too, he had taken note of the easy carriage of her head and
shoulders, and most of all of her small, slim feet and hands, that, to
his fastidious taste, betokened her race. "Ged, sir," he muttered
to himself, "she's 'Blue Grass' stock, all through." To admiration
succeeded pride, with a slight touch of ownership. When they went into
a shop, which, thanks to the ingenuous Pansy, they did pretty often,
he would introduce her with a wave of the hand and the remark, "I
am--er--seeking nothing to-day, but if you will kindly--er--serve my
WARD--Miss Stannard!" Later, when they went into the confectioner's for
refreshment, and Pansy frankly declared for "ice cream and cream cakes,"
instead of the "dish of tea and bread and butter" he had ordered in
pursuance of his promise, he heroically took it himself--to satisfy
his honor. Indeed, I know of no more sublime figure than Colonel
Starbottle--rising superior to a long-withstood craving for a
"cocktail," morbidly conscious also of the ridiculousness of his
appearance to any of his old associates who might see him--drinking
luke-warm tea and pecking feebly at his bread and butter at a small
table, beside his little tyrant.

And this domination of the helpless continued on their way home.
Although Miss Pansy no longer talked of herself, she was equally
voluble in inquiry as to the colonel's habits, ways of life, friends
and acquaintances, happily restricting her interrogations, in regard to
those of her own sex, to "any LITTLE girls that he knew." Saved by this
exonerating adjective, the colonel saw here a chance to indulge
his postponed monitorial duty, as well as his vivid imagination. He
accordingly drew elaborate pictures of impossible children he had
known--creatures precise in language and dress, abstinent of play and
confectionery, devoted to lessons and duties, and otherwise, in Pansy's
own words, "loathsome to the last degree!" As "daughters of oldest
and most cherished friends," they might perhaps have excited Pansy's
childish jealousy but for the singular fact that they had all long ago
been rewarded by marriage with senators, judges, and generals--also
associates of the colonel. This remoteness of presence somewhat marred
their effe