He looked hard into her eyes when she raised them for a moment; Bathsheba looked down again, for his gaze was too strong to be received point-blank with her own. But she had obliquely noticed that he was young and slim, and that he wore three chevrons upon his sleeve.
Bathsheba pulled again.
`You are a prisoner, miss; it is no use blinking the matter,' said the soldier drily. `I must cut your dress if you are in such a hurry.'
`Yes - please do!' she exclaimed helplessly.
`It wouldn't be necessary if you could wait a moment;' and he unwound a cord from the little wheel. She withdrew her own hand, but, whether by accident or design, he touched it. Bathsheba was vexed; she hardly knew why.
His unravelling went on, but it nevertheless seemed coming to no end.
She looked at him again.
`Thank you for the sight of such a beautiful face!' said the young sergeant, without ceremony.
She coloured with embarrassment. `'Twas unwillingly shown,' she replied stiffly, and with as much dignity - which was very little - as she could infuse into a position of captivity.
`I like you the better for that incivility, miss,' he said.
`I should have liked - I wish - you had never shown yourself to me by intruding here!' She pulled again, and the gathers of her dress began to give way like lilliputian musketry.
`I deserve the chastisement your words give me. But why should such a fair and dutiful girl have such an aversion to her father's ***?'
`Go on your way, please.'
`What, Beauty, and drag you after me? Do but look; I never saw such a tangle!'
`O, 'tis shameful of you; you have been ****** it worse on purpose to keep me here - you have!'
`Indeed, I don't think so,' said the sergeant, with a merry twinkle.
`I tell you you have!' she exclaimed, in high temper. `I insist upon undoing it. Now, allow me!'
`Certainly, miss; I am not of steel.' He added a sigh which had as much archness in it as a sigh could possess without losing its nature altogether.
`I am thankful for beauty, even when 'tis thrown to me like a hone to a dog. These moments will be over too soon!'
She closed her lips in a determined silence.
Bathsheba was revolving in her mind whether by a bold and desperate rush she could free herself at the risk of leaving her skirt bodily behind her. The thought was too dreadful. The dress - which she had put on to appear stately at the supper - was the head and front of her wardrobe; not another in her stock became her so well. What woman in Bathsheba's position, not naturally timid, and within call of her retainers, would have bought escape from a dashing soldier at so dear a price?
`All in good time; it will soon be done, I perceive,' said her cool friend.
`This trifling provokes, and - and--'
`Not too cruel!'
` - Insults me!'
`It is done in order that I may have the pleasure of apologizing to so charming a woman, which I straightway do most humbly, madam,' he said, bowing low.
Bathsheba really knew not what to say.
