On the steps of the Manor-house a gay party were assembled, laughing and talking, in a bouquet of bright dresses. Helena van Troyen ran forward to meet her.
“We have been waiting to see you,” she cried. “I have brought Toddlums—the baby—and also some one I knew would interest you all—Gerard’s Colonel from Acheen.”
“How delighted mamma will have been!” said Ursula, a little hypocritically, as she advanced to be introduced to a tall gentleman, all brick-dust and mustache.
“Colonel Vuurmont’s descriptions of Gerard’s bravery are too charmingly thrilling,” said Helena. “Dear Gerard! And so romantic! Tell Mevrouw van Helmont, Colonel, about that bit of brown glove.”
“Mevrouw, Mevrouw, that is a kind of a sort of a secret,” expostulated the Colonel, looking slightly bored.
“A secret! when half a dozen men saw it produced, and all Kotta Radja knew and teased him about it afterwards! Nonsense! Ursula, you must know that when Gerard was so terribly wounded—terribly wounded, it appears, and in four different places—they found an old brown kid glove on his breast. Isn’t that delicious? I had hoped the glove was mine, but Gerard says it wasn’t. There, nurse has let Toddlums upset herself again. Come, Ursula; I can’t bear to hear the child scream like that.”
The two men remained on the steps. “You must know, Van Troyen,” said the Colonel, “that Helmont maintains there is no love-story connected with that glove at all; only it would be a pity to spoil your wife’s amusement. He says that the glove saved his life in a duel, through his adversary slipping on it, and that he wore it as a kind of talisman.”
“I certainly remember about a duel,” replied Willie, “with a foreign officer, who had said, I believe, that Dutch soldiers were wanting in courage.”
“Helmont was just the right man to say that to,” remarked the Colonel, quietly.
“Ursula, I have got a wife for Gerard at last,” said Helena, fondling her baby. “On the whole, I think, she is suitable, though it has cost me a lot of trouble to admit it. But I am growing old, and have a baby, and one learns to see things differently. I have talked to him about it all, and I think he understands.”