At this, Betty suddenly dropped her needlework and scurried frantically out of the room.
Fortescue and the Colonel talked a long time together.
“I surmise what your disagreement and my granddaughter’s was about,” said the Colonel. “I think you both did me an injustice in supposing that I would stand in the way of the child’s happiness.”
Then Fortescue told about his trouble with his eyes, and his chances of remaining in the army, and all the details with which the Colonel was so familiar and so sympathetic.
It was quite twelve o’clock before Betty and her lover had their next walk up and down the garden path behind the tall box hedge.
Fortescue’s arrival had very much puzzled Kettle, and he asked Aunt Tulip what it meant.
“Huh!” sniffed Aunt Tulip. “It means that Mr. Fortescue is jes’ dead stuck on Miss Betty, an’ Miss Betty, she kinder got a shine fur Mr. Fortescue.”
Kettle determined to satisfy himself, and, watching his chance, when Betty had returned to the Colonel in the sitting-room, marched in and planting himself before Betty, asked anxiously:
“Miss Betty, is Mr. Fortescue dead stuck on you, an’ is you got a kinder shine fur Mr. Fortescue?”
