She gave one backward glance at Dale, but he had forgotten her existence and was poring over the battles of Pompey. Such indifference did not hurt her now:--it was the emptiness of that door! Still staring, silently beating her hands together in impotent rage, her face burning with mortification, two big tears rolled down her cheeks and fell upon the rug. Mac whined. He did not understand--he only felt. "Mac," she sobbed hysterically, "I wish you--could say all--all those things that go--with damn and hell!" then passionately ran from the room, and came up plump into the Colonel's ample waistcoat. "My God!" the old gentleman cried. "Oh!" she gasped. "Ah, 'tis you!" he said, his arms still about her. "I thought it was a wild-cat!" "I thought it was a bear," she sobbed. "What? Crying? My dear, how is this?" he asked in alarm. "I can't tell you," she murmured to his cravat. "Can't tell me! But I say you shall!" he hotly commanded. "I'll never do anything--when you say shall," she retorted brokenly. "God bless my soul," he sputtered. "I want you to understand that you'll do anything whether I say shall or not, when I find you crying!" "That sounds funny," she began to laugh, just a little. Then he began to laugh. She took his hand after this and led him across the hall into the "long room," and when they emerged ten minutes later there were no signs of tears. "Never fear," he chuckled, "I'll tell him this very night." "Oh, but you mustn't tell him," she said, aghast. "I only want him to understand!" "I see, I see," he pinched her cheek, "You only want him to understand. Well, he shall understand this very night, then." "And you'll thank him for sending me Mac?" "Yes, yes, I'll thank him, never fear. Wait now, till I order my horse; I'm going to ride home with you." "It isn't dark yet, and I'm not afraid with Mac," she demurred. "It is nearly dark, and I'm very much afraid," he bowed gallantly, "that I'll too soon be forgot for this airedale gentleman if you go alone." CHAPTER XXV ALMOST A RESOLUTION Shortly after breakfast next day the Colonel dispatched Uncle Zack and his mule with a note to Jane. He might have telephoned this message, which simply read: "He understands, with an amplitude of grace which ill befits him. Come over this morning and straighten Lizzie out with her preserving. I hear that she is skinning every negro on the place, and I greatly fear for them, or her." But, no; this must be on a written page and delivered by hand, for the old Colonel averred that no gentleman should assume to shriek his voice by mechanical device into the ear of a gentlewoman. In cases of illness, accident or fire, or perhaps in pressing business needs, the telephone had its uses; but a _faux pas_ of the first order was to employ it socially.