The girl returned his farewell a little mechanically; and Crane seemed to recover suddenly from a similar trance as he stepped after the retreating figure of his friend.
“I say, Owen,� he said hastily, “I’m sorry you’re leaving so early. Must you really go?�
“Yes,� replied Owen Hood gravely. “My private affairs are quite real and practical, I assure you.� His grave mouth worked a little humorously at the corners as he added: “The truth is, I don’t think I mentioned it, but I’m thinking of getting married.�
“Married!� repeated the Colonel, as if thunderstruck.
“Thanks for your compliments and congratulations, old fellow,� said the satiric Mr. Hood. “Yes, it’s all been thought out. I’ve even decided whom I am going to marry. She knows about it herself. She has been warned.�
“I really beg your pardon,� said the Colonel in great distress, “of course I congratulate you most heartily; and her even more heartily. Of course I’m delighted to hear it. The truth is, I was surprised ... not so much in that way....�
“Not so much in what way?� asked Hood. “I suppose you mean some would say I am on the way to be an old bachelor. But I’ve discovered it isn’t half so much a matter of years as of ways. Men like me get elderly more by choice than chance; and there’s much more choice and less chance in life than your modern fatalists make out. For such people fatalism falsifies even chronology. They’re not unmarried because they’re old. They’re old because they’re unmarried.�
“Indeed you are mistaken,� said Crane earnestly. “As I say, I was surprised, but my surprise was not so rude as you think. It wasn’t that I thought there was anything unfitting about ... somehow it was rather the other way ... as if things could fit better than one thought ... as if—but anyhow, little as I know about it, I really do congratulate you.�
“I’ll tell you all about it before long,� replied his friend. “It’s enough to say just now that it was all bound up with my succeeding after all in doing—what I did. She was the inspiration, you know. I have done what is called an impossible thing; but believe me, she is the really impossible part of it.�
“Well, I must not keep you from such an impossible engagement,� said Crane smiling. “Really, I’m confoundedly glad to hear about all this. Well, good-bye for the present.�