“Well, aren’t you going to shake hands?”
“Ay, might as well. How are you, Nat?”
“Quite well, thank you, Samson. How are you?”
“Feel as if I should be all the better for a mug o’ cider. What says you?”
“Same as you.”
“Then come on.”
And Nat came on.
For peace was made, and though rumours of the next war at the Restoration came down to the west, those who had been enemies stirred not from the ingle-side again till Fred Forrester was called away; but Scarlett had become a student and a scholar, and the young friends met no more in strife. When they did encounter, and ran over the troubles of the past, it was with a calm feeling of satisfaction in the present, and the old war time as years slipped by seemed to them both as a dream.
“Yes,” cried Sir Godfrey, eagerly, as he laid his hand on Colonel Forrester’s shoulder; “some day, with all my heart.”
“I am very glad,” said the stern colonel, smiling at a group by the house where the ladies were seated, and Fred and Lil, so intent on each other’s converse, that they did not perceive that they were watched.