At breakfast on the following morning he endeavoured to
bring his friend back on to the subject. But the Captain was
cross, rather than oracular. 'Everybody,' he said, 'ought to know
his own business.' He wasn't going to meddle or make. What he had
said had been taken amiss. This was hard upon Tifto, who had taken
nothing amiss.
'Square be d-!' There was a great deal in the lesson there
enunciated which demanded consideration. Hitherto the Major had
fought his battles with a certain adherence to squareness. If his
angles had not all been perfect angles, still there had always
been an attempt at geometrical accuracy. He might now and then
have told a lie about a horse--but who that deals in horses has not
done that? He had been alive to the value of underhand information
from racing-stables, but who won't use a tip if he can get it? He
had lied about the expense of his hounds, in order to enhance the
subscription of his members. Those were things which everybody did
in his line. But Green had meant something beyond this.
As far as he could see out in the world at large, nobody was
square.
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