see what I can do to make the room attractive. We can drive out to-morrow."
"All right," said Floyd. "It will only make you unhappy, but if you insist.—You'll think the girl is quite a wonder, anyway—splendid red hair."
"Did you let them know who you were?" the Colonel asked.
"Yes, they found out."
"And how did they take it? A little surprised, were they—and agitated?"
Colonel Halket leaned forward, with an eager smile to hear the gratifying details. Floyd rehearsed them all; Colonel Halket was greatly amused upon hearing how overcome Mrs. Bell had been. He was less pleased to learn of the daughter's indifference and self-possession, and shook his head over it, though Mrs. Halket thought she must be a girl of some character—rather bright, too. "The young women of the present day," pronounced Colonel Halket, "are too independent—they have a tendency to fortify themselves against the proprieties—not to be deferential. In all classes."
"I should imagine," Floyd said, "from the way she looks and carries herself, that she's more used to getting deference than to giving it. She's handsome enough, too."
"When I was young," continued Colonel Halket, "the girl who was pert and had an air and all that was n't much courted; it was the quiet, gentle girl who was always pleased with any little attention and acted as if she never expected it and was n't used to having it, that was attractive to men."
"Robert," cried Mrs. Halket, with some asperity, "was I that kind of girl?"
Colonel Halket paused, somewhat confused, and then his face cleared in a smile. Only with his wife did he seem to have a simple humor, untainted by vanity or self-consciousness, always courtly in expression. "Now that
