Page:Middle Aged Love Stories (IA middleagedlove00bacorich).djvu/300

 more before we go in!” called the pink girl.

“Here’s Mr. Varian. Come and help us out—the colonel’s beaten!” added Mrs. Dud.

“Here, puss! here, puss!” With excited little shrieks and laughs they dashed by, the colonel making ineffectual grabs at their elusive skirts. Varian shook his head good-naturedly.

“Too late, too late!” he called back, and taking pity on the puffing, purple colonel, he bore him off.

“Thank God! I’m just about winded! I’d have dropped in my tracks,” complained the rescued man, breathing hard as they rounded the shrubbery. In the corner two figures, half seen in the dark, leaned toward each other an imperceptible moment. The colonel laughed contentedly.

“When I see that sort of thing, I think we’ve made a mistake—eh, Varian?” he said, half serious. “It’s