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256 could be said to be in love, she was so—with the idea of becoming Mrs. Wybrowe. But the colonel was a practical man, and would stand no nonsense. The pill was very distasteful; he must be well paid, or he would not swallow it. And so there was a rupture.

William Shaw, had he been a man of any observation, would have seen that all this was no news to his wife. Mrs. Shaw regretted the failure of their poor friend's matrimonial prospects, but expressed no surprise. Her husband wondered whether the colonel would try to forget the past, and would pay them a visit at Farley, where he had been so shamefully treated less than six months ago. Mrs. Shaw thought that "a little later, perhaps," when time had softened bitter recollections, he might be persuaded to come. Her tone throughout, it may here be added, was always that his affections had been cruelly wounded by Elizabeth's conduct, and that pique alone had driven him to propose to Miss Krupp.

Her good easy husband took his cue from her. The colonel's engagement to his niece had been one of sentiment, that to the heiress one of reason. He pitied him; he never for an instant doubted the fortune-hunter's singleness of purpose. The firm, gallant soldier, who had been "a bit wild, maybe, in his youth," had been deceived and disappointed in his honest attachment, and had then recklessly offered himself to the girl who had "thrown herself at his head," as Mrs. Shaw expressed it. William felt as if he were almost responsible for his ward's treatment of the ill-used man. They must testify their sympathy for him as best they could, and assure him that he would always be welcome at Farley.