So Godfrey went, but as he neared the door the big man called after him:
“By the way, I forgot to congratulate you. No, no, I don’t mean on your marriage, but on your promotion. You’ve been informed, haven’t you? Well, it will be gazetted to-morrow or in a day or two, and letters will be sent to you with the other papers.”
“What promotion?” asked Godfrey.
“Oh! to be a colonel, of course. You did very well out there in France, you know, and it is thought advisable that the officer undertaking this special work should have a colonel’s rank, just to begin with. Good-bye.”
So Godfrey went, and said vaguely to the waiting Isobel:
“I’m afraid, dear, that I shall have to ask you to help me to do some shopping. I think there are some stores near here. We had better drive to them.”
“Tell me everything,” said Isobel.
So he told her, and when he had finished she said slowly:
“It is bad enough, but I suppose it might be worse. Will they let me go with you to Southampton?”
“I expect so,” he answered. “At any rate, we will try it on. I think it is an ordinary train, and you have a right to take a ticket.”