"Sylvia!" said the colonel, on arriving home.
"Yes, papa."
"Do you still want to marry that Dallas fellow? Now, for Heaven's sake, don't start crying! Goodness knows I've been worried enough this morning without that. Please answer a plain question in a fairly sane manner. Do you, or do you not?"
"Of course I do, papa."
"Then you may. He's the furthest from being a fool of any of the young puppies who live about here, and he knows one end of a gun from the other. I'll write to him now."
"Dear Dallas" (wrote the colonel),—"I find, on consideration,
that you are the only sensible person in the neighbourhood. I hope
you will come to lunch to-day. And if you still want to marry
my daughter, you may."
To which Dallas replied by return of messenger:
"Thanks for both invitations. I will."
An hour later he arrived in person, and the course of true love pulled itself together, and began to run smooth again.