"What?" thundered the colonel.
"I think Kitty's secretly relieved to have it all over. But you needn't stun me."
"You do?" The colonel paused as if to gain force enough for a reply. But after waiting, nothing whatever came to him, and he wound up his watch.
"To be sure," added Mrs. Ellison thoughtfully, after a pause, "she's giving up a great deal; and she'll probably never have such another chance as long as she lives."
"I hope she won't," said the colonel.
"O, you needn't pretend that a high position and the social advantages he could have given her are to be despised."
"No, you heartless worldling; and neither are peace of mind, and self-respect, and whole feelings, and your little joke."
"O, you—you sickly sentimentalist!"
"That's what they used to call us in the good old abolition days," laughed the colonel; and the two being quite alone, they made their peace with a kiss, and were as happy for the moment as if they had thereby assuaged Kitty's grief and mortification.
"Besides, Fanny," continued the colonel, "though I'm not much on religion, I believe these things are ordered."