“Oh!” said Ted slowly. “I didn’t recognize her from that glowing description.”
Russell Minor dodged out of reach, keeping the table between them.
“Pax, old man, I’ll apologize; I s’pose she’s not a bad sort—for a girl. So I congratulate you—that is, if you had to go and get hooked I don’t know that you could have done better. Have you written home yet?”
“Do be sensible. How could I? Only settled it a couple of hours ago, and I’m going to write now. Wonder what the mater’ll think!”
Captain Russell sat down and took out a pen and some writing-paper. He shortly rose, however, and pushed the paper from him.
“No, I’ll wait till to-morrow,” he muttered. “I’m not quite sure that I’m not dreaming now, so I’ll go and walk it off.”
This was going from bad to worse, thought Ted, as two more days passed and his brother was spending all his precious leave walking or riding about with the girl, who seemed just as stupidly happy as he. Though Ted believed (in spite of his chaff) that no one could help liking and admiring his brother, he could not see the sense of this falling in love. Why on earth was this foolish Ethel Woodburn continually casting hurried glances across the room at Jim? Still more incomprehensible was the look of gloom that settled on his brother’s face whenever Ethel quitted the room for however short a period, or the sudden access of joy when she returned.
“Thank goodness, I shall never make such a fool of myself!” he reflected; but even this thought did not console him for the loss of his brother’s society. True, both Jim and Ethel frequently asked him to join in their rides and walks, but, recognizing the truth of the old saying that “two’s company, three’s none”, he decided not to become a nuisance to the lovers. He was far from satisfied with the new conditions, however, and considered himself ill-used.
“Why should Ethel Woodburn come between us in this way,” he grumbled to himself, “when I’d been looking forward to such a good time with old Jim? I wish she’d stayed in England.”
He became morose and irritable, answering curtly when Jim spoke to him, and keeping out of Miss Woodburn’s way as much as possible. Captain Russell was too happy to take much notice of the change in the “young ’un’s” manner, but Ethel observed it with pain. She liked Ted, and had always considered him the nicest boy in the regiment, and her love and admiration for Jim and the pleasure she found in being with him made her see more clearly how the ensign felt the loss of his brother’s society. She hated the idea of causing a coolness between them, and determined to do her utmost to gain Ted’s friendship and reconcile him to the inevitable.