"Holy simplicity!" said I. "You told me so yourself."

She laughed. Suddenly, on reflection, her face changed.

"Why did you say 'at last'?"

"Well--" said I, with a significant gesture.

She made a defiant announcement:--

"I am going to marry Willie Connor."

"It was my turn to be astonished. "Captain Connor?" I echoed.

"Yes. What have you to say against him?"

"Nothing, my dear, nothing."

And I hadn't. He was an exemplary young fellow, a Captain in a
Territorial regiment that had been in hard training in the
neighbourhood since August. He was of decent family and
upbringing, a barrister by profession, and a comely pink-faced boy
with a fair moustache. He brought a letter or two of introduction,
was billeted on Mrs. Fairfax, together with one of his subs, and
was made welcome at various houses. Living under the same roof as
Betty, it was natural that he should fall in love with her. But it
was not at all natural that she should fall in love with him. She
was not one of the kind that suffer fools gladly. ... No; I had
nothing against Willie Connor. He was merely a common-place,