Colonel Denbigh pulled hard at his mustache.
“Give her a little love, Carter, and trust in the Lord,” he advised gently.
It was Virginia, however, who solved the problem.
“William must take her away,” she said decidedly. “She’s used to big cities, to life and light and change, and she couldn’t endure us here. It will be a long time before she can. If he takes her away they’ll understand each other, Mrs. Carter, and then the rest of it will solve itself.”
Mrs. Carter assented to this. It came to her in the nature of manna from heaven. To mend William’s marriage and to escape the responsibility of Fanchon would be almost too good to be true.
“I reckon that’s just it, Jinny,” she said weakly. “It’s all wrong for two young people to start in together with another family. We’re right set in our ways, too. I think you’re right. Don’t you, papa?”
Mr. Carter nodded again. There was a little pause, broken only by the distant sound of Daniel’s march on the piazza.
“Isn’t that boy coming in here to sit down and drink some tea?” Mr. Carter demanded suddenly and sharply, addressing space.
“I’ll call him,” said Virginia.
But as she spoke they heard a step on the stairs and William’s voice.