"Miss Good!" Calvin Gray strode forward, took the girl's hands in his and drew her over the threshold. "My dear Miss Good, I have rummaged half the state, looking for you."
"I hope I'm not interrupting.—I recognized you and—" The girl turned her eyes to Henry Nelson, but at sight of his face her smile vanished. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she cried. "Let me run out—"
Gray held her hands more firmly. "Never. Do you think I shall risk losing you again? Colonel Nelson and I had finished our chat and were merely exchanging pleasantries."
"Cross your heart?"
"Cross my heart and hope to die." Gray laughed joyously and again shook the girl's hands.
"Yes. Colonel Gray was just leaving," Nelson managed to say.
"Colonel? Are you a colonel, too?" the girl inquired, and Gray bowed.
"I was."
"And you knew each other abroad?"
"We came to know each other very well. We were, in fact, commissioned at the same time and place, but Colonel Nelson received his a moment earlier than I received mine, therefore he outranked me. Now then, permit me to retire while you and he—"