“Why, is that not all off? Colonel Hunter represented the matter so forcibly to my father, put all the difficulties so clearly before him, that I actually wrote to my brother, who had started for Dublin, begging him on no account to hasten the day of his examination, but to come home and devote himself carefully to the task of preparation.”
“It is true, the Colonel never regarded the project as I did, and saw obstacles to its success which never occurred to me; with all that, however, he never convinced me I was wrong.”
“Perhaps not always an easy thing to do,” said she, dryly.
“Indeed! You seem to have formed a strong opinion on the score of my firmness.”
“I was expecting you to say obstinacy,” said she, laughing, “and was half prepared with a most abject retractation. At all events, I was aware that you did not give way.”
“And is the quality such a bad one?”
“Just as a wind may be said to be a good or a bad one; due west, for instance, would be very unfavorable if you were bound to New York.”
It was the second time he had angled for a compliment, and failed; and he walked along at her side, fretful and discontented. “I begin to suspect,” said he, at last, “that the Colonel was far more eager to make himself agreeable here than to give fair play to my reasons.”
“He was delightful, if you mean that; he possesses the inestimable boon of good spirits, which is the next thing to a good heart.”
“You don't like depressed people, then?”