Carolina lifted her head with instant hauteur, but her father only smiled and knocked the ashes from his cigar.
"Yes, an enthusiast of my type is always to be pitied," he said, gently.
"Not entirely that," responded Colonel Yancey. "In some strong characters, their enthusiasms only indicate their weak points, but it is not so in your case. It is rather that you have idealized your homesickness."
"I am homesick," said Captain Lee, "for what I never had."
"Exactly. Now you left Guildford when you were a mere lad, so it is largely your father's opinion of the South--your father's love for the old place that you have inherited and made your own, just as, in Miss Carolina's case, it is wholly vicarious. Have you any idea of the deterioration your own little town of Enterprise has suffered?"
"I suppose you are right," said Captain Lee.
"I hope, then," said Colonel Yancey, slowly, "that you will never go back South to live, especially to Enterprise."
Carolina's sensitive face flushed, but she was too well bred to interrupt.
"You mean," said Captain Lee, with a keen glance at his friend, "that I would find the South a disappointment?"
"It would break your heart! It hurts me, tough as I am and little as I care compared to an enthusiast like yourself. It would wound you, but"--and here he turned his magnetic glance on the young girl--"for an idealist like missy here, it would be death itself!"