At that moment a good-looking young officer in spotless full uniform, with his cap so natty that the rain could never have been allowed to fall upon it, with his hair curled and his moustache trim as if he had been intended for any other description of "ball" than one met on the field of battle, and with a Captain's double-bars on his shoulder,--came across the Park from the direction of Broadway, over to the Beekman Street corner, as if to pass down that street. Some of the talkers noticed him, and connected him and his class a little injuriously with the events of the day. Just as he passed the corner, brushing very near some of the talkers and casting a hurried glance at the bulletin-board--one of the crowd, a rough fellow who might have belonged to the set who growled and hooted Coriolanus out of Rome,--broke out with:-- "There goes one of them, now!" "Yes," muttered another, almost in front of the officer. "D--n 'em all! Much good those shiny uniforms are doing the country!" The officer, who must have heard the words and known that they were intended for his ears, paid no attention and was passing on--the part of prudence and propriety, beyond a doubt. But one of the crowd was not satisfied. He must make wrong of the right (a thing very common in all causes) and the insult a personal one. "See here!" and he laid his hand on the officer's arm, detaining him, but not roughly. "Do you see what there is on that bulletin?" "I see!" said the Captain. "Yes, they are cutting our boys all to pieces down there!" went on the aggrieved citizen. "Well?" again said the officer, apparently neither angry nor frightened. "Well!" spoke the other, repeating his word, but a little abashed by the calmness of the officer, whose arm he had let go the moment he turned to speak to him. "Well!--perhaps it is none of my business, you know--but why the d--l don't you fellows who have such handsome uniforms, and commissions, and all that sort of thing, go down and help?" "Humph!" said the Captain, still with no symptom of being abashed or angry. "Perhaps it _would_ be as well, for all of us who _could_." "Oh, you can't go, eh?" said another member of the assemblage, in a sneering tone. "Not _yet_!" was the reply of the officer. "I thought not!" said the man who had first addressed him. "See here, boys!" said the Captain, "haven't you made a mistake in your man? I hate a stay-at-home soldier, quite as much as you." "Why don't you go, then?" one of the others again interrupted. "I have _been_, and I am _going again_!" said the Captain, emphatically. "I see what is the matter. I have just put on a new uniform, and you think that looks suspicious. So it does, I suppose; but my old one has been through six pitched battles and looks rough enough to suit you." "The d--l it has!" said the man who had addressed him. "Really, Captain, I beg your pardon!"