"I never conduct myself well. Don't laugh! I am in earnest. I am odious, do you understand? If you will persist in liking me, I shall make you unhappy."
"I don't like you," said the Colonel. "It was true what I told you the first time I set eyes on you. I love you."
She looked at him with sombre eyes. "How can you do so? If you were in a way to loving me did not that turn to dislike when you saw me at my worst?"
"Not a bit!" he replied. "I will own to a strong inclination to have boxed your ears, but I could not cease to love you, I think, for any imaginable folly on your part." He swung himself out of the saddle, and let the bridle hang over his horse's head. "May I lift you down? There is a seat under the trees where we can have our talk out undisturbed."
She set her hand on his shoulder, but said, half mournfully: "This is the greatest imaginable folly, poor soldier."
"I love you most of all when you are absurd," said the Colonel, lifting her down from the saddle.
He set her on her feet, but held her for an instant longer, his eyes smiling into hers; then his hands squesed her waist, and he gathered up both the horses' bridles, and said: "Let me take you to the secluded nook I have discovered."
"Innocent!" she said mockingly, falling into step side him. "I know all the secluded nooks."
He laughed. "You are shameless."
She looked sideways at him. "A baggage?"