Looking at me he added: “May I send you some roses just the color of your cheeks?”
Something now was really happening, and I was excited and delighted.
“Can’t we take the ladies—” I nudged Ellen—“some place for a little refreshment,” said the Colonel.
“No,” said Ellen, “mama expects us home.”
“Too bad,” murmured the Colonel, very much disappointed, “but how about some other night? To-morrow, shall we say?” Looking at me, he added: “May I send you some roses, just the color of your cheeks?”
I nodded from behind Ellen’s back.
“Come on,” said Ellen brusquely, “we’d better be getting home. You know you’ve got the dishes to do, Marion.”
She drew me along. I couldn’t resist looking back, and there was that fascinating Colonel, standing stock-still in the street, still pulling at his mustache, and staring after me. He smiled all over, when I turned, and blew me an odd little kiss, like a kind of salute, only from his lips.
That night, when Ellen and I were getting ready for bed, I said:
“Isn’t the Colonel thrillingly handsome though?”