"No, I should have won everything. She was only a girl then, and was immensely gone on me. A soldier in her eyes was a hero, and an officer's uniform the most splendid thing she could imagine. If I'd struck then, when the iron was hot, she'd have fallen into my arms, and once engaged there'd have been no backing out."
"My dear boy, you don't know Madeline Grover," Sir Charles said, seriously. "No girlish promise would have bound her if she wanted to get out of it."
"Oh, yes, it would. She has tremendously high notions about honour and duty."
"Exactly. That's just where you fail to appreciate the difficulties of the situation. Very likely you tell her that some of her notions are silly, because you don't understand them."
"That's just what I have been telling her this very morning."
"And you think that's the way, perhaps, to win her promise."
"But what's a fellow to do? One cannot sit mum while she talks rot about—about——"
"About what?"
"Oh! I don't know; but you know when a girl gets on to heroics she generally makes a fool of herself."
"Madeline is very sane as a general thing."