Whether she was revenging
herself on her second husband for the faults of her first is not known,
but it was certain that she brought an unhallowed knowledge of the
weaknesses, cheap cynicism, and vanity of a foreign predecessor, to sit
in judgment upon the simple-minded and chivalrous American soldier who
had succeeded him, and who was, in fact, the most loyal of husbands. The
natural result of her skepticism was an espionage and criticism of the
wives of the major's brother officers that compelled a frequent change
of quarters. When to this was finally added a racial divergence and
antipathy, the public disparagement of the customs and education of her
female colleagues, and the sudden insistence of a foreign and French
dominance in her household beyond any ordinary Creole justification,
Randolph, presumably to avoid later international complications,
resigned while he was as yet a major. Luckily his latest banishment to
an extreme Western outpost had placed him in California during the flood
of a speculation epoch.
Pages:
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161