A gallant gentleman answers, ‘I know it; I’ll try to show I know it.’
The Colonel is perturbed. ‘I haven’t given Barbara a wedding present, Ellen. I should like——’
Barbara breaks in, ‘Indeed you have, dear, and a lovely one. You haven’t forgotten?’
Granny signs to the Colonel and he immediately says, with remarkable cunning, ‘Oh—that! I was just quizzing you, Barbara. I hope you will be as happy, dear, staid Barbara, as if you had married——’ He sees that he has nearly given away the situation. He looks triumphantly at granny as much as to say, ‘Observe me; I’m not going to say a word about him.’
Granny comes to his aid. ‘Perhaps Captain Dering has some little things to do: and you, too, Barbara. They are leaving in an hour, John.’
For a moment the Colonel is again in danger. ‘If you would like to take Barbara into the garden, Captain Dering——’ He recovers himself instantly. ‘No, not the garden, you wouldn’t know your way about in the garden.’
‘Wouldn’t I, Colonel?’ the captain says, smiling.
The answer is quite decisive. ‘No, certainly not. I’ll show it you some day.’ He makes gleeful signs to granny. ‘But there is a nice meadow just beyond the shrubbery. Barbara knows the way; she often went there with——’ He checks himself. Granny signs to them to go, and Barbara kisses both the Colonel’s hands. ‘The Captain will be jealous, you know,’ he says, twinkling.
‘Let me, dear,’ says Barbara, arranging his cushions professionally.
Granny nods. ‘She is much better at it than I am now, John.’