Sometimes, it is true, Gertrude's resistance flagged; but this was only
the temporary acquiescence of fatigue, and the battle was renewed with
the old spirit on the next occasion, and was all to be fought over
again. At breakfast there was generally, as I may say, an affair of
picquets, and through the day a dropping fire, sometimes rising to a
skirmish; but the social meal of supper was generally the period when,
for the most part, these desultory hostilities blazed up into a general
action. The fortune of war as usual shifted. Sometimes Gertrude left the
parlour and effected a retreat to her bed-room. Sometimes it was Aunt
Rebecca's turn to slam the door, and leave the field to her adversary.
Sometimes, indeed, Aunt Becky thought she had actually finished the
exhausting campaign, when her artillery had flamed and thundered over
the prostrate enemy for a full half hour unanswered; but when, at the
close of the cannonade she marched up, with drums beating and colours
flying, to occupy the position and fortify her victory, she found, much
to her mortification, that the foe had only, as it were, lain down to
let her shrapnels and canister fly over, and the advance was arrested
with the old volley and hurrah.
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