Since her father occupied the highest rank in their circle of friends,
everybody treated him with an amount of respect which is rarely shown
to equals, and as she was the general's daughter, she was treated in
the same way. She held the rank of a general and she knew it.

There was always an orderly sitting in the hall who rose with much
clanking and clashing of steel and stood at attention whenever she
went in or out. At the balls none but the majors dared to ask her for
a dance; she looked upon a captain as a representative of an inferior
race, and a lieutenant as a naughty boy.

She fell into the habit of appreciating people entirely according to
their rank. She called all civilians "fishes," poorly-clad people
"rascals," and the very poor "the mob."

The ladies, however, were altogether outside this scale. Her father,
who occupied a position above all men, and who was saluted respectfully
wherever he went, always stood up before a lady, regardless of her age,
kissed the hands of those he knew, and was at the beck and call of every
pretty woman. The result of this was that very early in life she became
very firmly convinced of the superiority of her own sex, and accustomed
herself to look upon a man as a lower being.

Whenever she went out on horseback, a groom invariably rode behind
her. When she stopped to admire the landscape, he stopped too. He was
her shadow. But she had no idea what he looked like, or whether he was
young or old. If she had been asked about his sex, she would not have
known how to reply; it had never occurred to her that the shadow could
have a sex; when, in mounting, she placed her little riding-boot in