,
grave and saturnine disposition, and accurate and precise in his acts and manner
of thinking, even Cap, dogmatical and supercilious as he usually was with
landsmen, did not presume to take the same liberties with the old soldier, as he
did with his other friends. It was often remarked that Serjeant Dunham received
more true respect from Duncan of Lundie, the Scotch Laird who commanded the
post, than most of the subalterns, for experience and tried services were of
quite as much value in the eyes of the veteran Major, as birth and money. While
the serjeant never even hoped to rise any higher, he so far respected himself
and his present station, as always to act in a way to command attention, and the
habit of mixing so much with inferiors, whose passions and dispositions he felt
it necessary to restrain by distance and dignity, had so far coloured his whole
deportment, that few were altogether free from its influence. While the captains
treated him kindly, and as an old comrade, the lieutenants seldom ventured to
dissent from his military opinions, and the ensigns, it was remarked, actually
manifested a species of respect, that amounted to something very like deference.
It is no wonder then, that the announcement of Mabel put a sudden termination to
the singular dialogue we have just related, though it had been often observed
that the Pathfinder was the only man, on that frontier, beneath the condition of
a gentleman, who presumed to treat the Serjeant at all as an equal, or even with
the cordial familiarity of a friend.
    »Good morrow, Brother Cap,« said the Serjeant, giving the military salute,
as he walked, in a grave, stately manner on the bastion. »My morning duty has
made me seem forgetful of you and Mabel, but we have now an hour or two to
spare, and to get acquainted. Do you not perceive, brother, a strong likeness in
the girl, to her we have so long lost?«
    »Mabel is the image of her mother, serjeant, as I have always said, with a
little of your firmer figure; though, for that matter, the Caps were never
wanting in spring and activity.«
    Mabel cast a timid glance at the stern, rigid countenance of her father, of
whom she had ever thought as the warm-hearted dwell on the affection of their
absent parents, and, as she saw that the muscles of his face were working,
notwithstanding the stiffness and method of his manner, her very heart yearned
to throw herself on his bosom, and to weep at will. But