Miss Linda watched Alexander rub his chin with that smug look on his face and felt a bubbling anger grow in her heart.
He looked at her the same way she would look at those beggars on the streets in the rare times she went to the city- equal parts scorn and amusement.
But that anger soon turned into helpless lamentation as Miss Linda recognized her powerlessness.
This was quickly followed up by shame as she recalled just how happy she had been just because Alexander did not outright reject her petition for the loan.
Her face felt flushed, and she whispered to herself, 'Oh how far I have fallen.'
But Miss Linda quickly masked these insecurities before Alexander could detect them and tried to strengthen her case for the loan by appealing to Alexander's own sense of camaraderie with his soldiers,