But
Charles was too easy-going to envy any man.
When he arrived he knew no one in Dantzig, had few friends in the
army of occupation. In six months he possessed acquaintances in
every street, and was on terms of easy familiarity with all his
fellow-officers.
"If the army of occupation had more officers like young Darragon," a
town councillor had grimly said to Rapp, "the Dantzigers would soon
be resigned to your presence."
It seemed that Charles had the gift of popularity. He was open and
hearty, hail-fellow-well-met with the new-comers, who were numerous
enough at this time, quick to understand the quiet men, ready to
make merry with the gay. Regarding himself, he was quite open and
frank.
"I am a poor devil of a lieutenant," he said, "that is all."
Reserve is fatal to popularity, yet friendship cannot exist without
it. Charles had, it seemed, nothing to hide, and was indifferent to
the secrets of others. It is such people who receive many
confidences.
"But it must go no farther . . ." a hundred men had said to him.
"My friend, by to-morrow I shall have forgotten all about it," he
invariably replied, which men remembered afterwards and were glad.
A certain sort of friendship seemed to exist between Charles
Darragon and Colonel de Casimir--not without patronage on one side
and a slightly constraining sense of obligation on the other. It
was de Casimir who had introduced Charles to Mathilde Sebastian at a
formal reception at General Rapp's.
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