"And I am safe with-with—"
"With everybody but Isabel. She may be foolish, but she's a woman, and even a woman can see around a corner."
"Thank you for telling me," said Rose, after a little; "for giving me time. It was like you."
"I'm glad I could, but remember, I haven't told you, officially. Let her tell you herself."
Rose nodded. "Then I'll come down just as soon as I can."
"With white gloves on, dear, and flags flying. Make your old aunt proud of you now, won't you?"
"I'll try," she answered, humbly, then quickly closed the door.
Meanwhile Colonel Kent, most correctly attired, was making a formal call upon his prospective daughter-in-law, and the list had scarcely been begun. Isabel sat in the living room, trying not to show that she was bored. The Colonel had come in, ready to receive her into his house and his heart, but Isabel had shaken hands with him coolly, and accepted shrinkingly the fatherly kiss he stooped to bestow upon her forehead.
He had tried several preliminary topics of conversation, which had been met with chilling monosyllables, so he plunged into the heart of the subject, with inward trepidation.
"I told Allison this morning that I owed him my thanks for bringing me a daughter."