Peter, in a voice that did not seem to belong to his body, so big did it sound, "all hot, all eager."
"Why you yourself are a host, Peter," said Ellinor with affected gravity; "your sight alone would frighten an army of robbers: who could have thought you could assume so military an air? The Corporal himself was never so upright!"
"I have practised my present attitude all the day, Miss," said Peter, proudly, "and I believe I may now say as Mr. Sternhold says or sings, in the twenty-sixth Psalm, verse twelfth.
'My foot is stayed for all assays,
It standeth well and right,
Wherefore to God—will I give praise
In all the people's sight!'
Jacobina, behave yourself, child. I don't think, your honour, that we miss the Corporal so much as I fancied at first, for we all does very well without him."
"Indeed you are a most worthy substitute,
