"How was
I to know that you were so easily alarmed?"
She pressed his arm with warm affection.
"There is nothing to be regretted," she said. "I ought to be glad that
a little thing can stir me--some people need catastrophe. If it had
not been for that sudden fear, I might have been bad-tempered and
spoiled the day for myself and every one."
"And then you would have had to add it to the long list of days which
haunt us in later life," he added almost to himself, "--one of the
occasions for happiness which we have wilfully defaced. But there, I
think I hear some one coming. It is probably Stafford. Won't you run
and meet him?"
She drew her hand quickly from his arm as though in answer to his
suggestion, then hesitated and shook her head.
"I think I will wait here with you," she said, looking up at him.
He nodded, and they stood side by side watching the pathway which led
around to the highroad beyond the compound. Colonel Carmichael was
smiling to himself. His wife's sure conviction that the hour of Lois'
union with Stafford was not far off had at last overcome his own
inexplicable doubts and objections, and he even considered the
possibility with a kind of satisfaction not unmingled with pain. "It
is well that she should have a good strong man to protect her," he
thought, conscious of age and growing infirmity. Then he looked down
at the happy face beside him and his smile lost all trace of
bitterness.
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