‘Not a bit!’ he replied. ‘I will own to a strong inclination to have boxed your ears, but I could not cease to love you, I think, for any imaginable folly on your part.’ He swung himself out of the saddle, and let the bridle hang over his horse’s head. ‘May I lift you down? There is a seat under the trees where we can have our talk out undisturbed.’
She set her hand on his shoulder, but said, half mournfully: ‘This is the greatest imaginable folly, poor soldier.’
‘I love you most of all when you are absurd,’ said the Colonel, lifting her down from the saddle.
He set her on her feet, but held her for an instant longer, his eyes smiling into hers; then his hands released her waist, and he gathered up both the horses’ bridles, and said: ‘Let me take you to the secluded nook I have discovered.’
‘Innocent!’ she said mockingly, falling into step beside him. ‘I know all the secluded nooks.’
He laughed. ‘You are shameless.’
She looked sideways at him. ‘A baggage?’
‘Yes, a baggage,’ he agreed, lifting her hand to his lips a moment.
‘If you know that, I consider you fairly warned, and shall let you run on your fate as fast as you please.’
‘Faute de mieux,’ he remarked. ‘Here is my nook. Let me beg your ladyship to be seated!’
‘Oh, call me Bab! Everyone does.’ She sat down, and began to strip off her gloves. ‘Have you still my rose?’ she enquired.
He laid his hand upon his heart. ‘Can you ask?’
‘I began to think you an accomplished flirt. I hope the thorns may not prick you.’
‘To be honest with you,’ confessed the Colonel, ‘the gesture was metaphorical.’
She burst out laughing. ‘Your trick! Tell me what it is you want! To flirt with me? I am perfectly willing. To kiss me? You may if you choose.’
‘To marry you,’ he said.
‘Ah, now you are talking nonsense! Has no one warned you what bad blood there is in my family?’
‘Yes, your brother Harry. I am much obliged to him, and to you, and must warn you, in my turn, that I had an uncle once who was so much addicted to the bottle that he died of it. Furthermore, my grandfather—’
She put up her hands. ‘Stop, stop! Abominable to laugh when I am in earnest! If I married you we should certainly fight.’
‘Not a doubt of it,’ he agreed.
‘You would wish to make me sober and well-behaved, and I—’
‘Never! To shake you, perhaps, but I am persuaded your sense of justice would pardon that.’
‘My sense of justice might, but not my temper. I should flirt with other men: you would not like that.’
‘No, nor permit it.’
‘My poor Charles! How would you stop me?’
‘By flirting with you myself,’ he replied.
‘It would lack spice in a husband. I don’t care for marriage. It is curst flat. You do not know that; but I have reason to. Did Gussie tell you I was going to marry Lavisse?’
‘Most pointedly. But I think you are not.’
‘You may be right,’ she said coolly. ‘It is more than I can bargain for, though. He is extremely wealthy. I should enjoy the comfort of a large fortune. My debts would ruin you in a year. Have you thought of that?’
‘No, but I will, if you like, and devise some means of meeting the difficulty when it arises. Should you object very much to living in a debtors’ prison?’