She thought of her father, so bereaved by her
conduct. Her eyes filled with tears at the vision of him mournfully
silent in the evenings, too much cast down to even reproach her with her
perfidy. Then she began to laugh as a certain thought came to her. He
had ceased to show his diminished head on the streets of Jordantown. He
had been sober for two months, spending all of his time attending to his
farm. He was like a good soldier, who in the face of a decisive battle
indulges in no weakness, keeps his wits about him. She was sure he was
camping in the spirit beneath her walls, waiting for the citadel to
fall. They practised the fine honour of noble enemies. He never asked
her any question about what was going forward in the suffrage ranks. He
even broke his own eggs at breakfast with the proud air of a man who
neither asks nor gives quarter.

"Father," she would say at the breakfast table, "let me break your
eggs!"

"No, Selah, I'm an old man, I've come upon evil days in my own house,
but I am still able to attend to my simple wants. Pray don't let me
detain you"--seeing that she wore her hat, and that the abominable car
would be purring at the curb.

"Very well, then, I'll be off, but expect me back before night," she
would say, kissing him on the forehead.

"No, I do not expect you home before night. I never do. It would not
surprise me if you didn't get in before midnight. I'm prepared for
anything now!" he would answer without looking up.

Nevertheless, she made it a rule always to get back from her engagements
before he came in.

"Is that you, father?" she would call down the staircase.

"Yes, just came in, but I didn't expect to find you here," he would
answer accusingly.

It could not be said that they kept the peace. Rather they kept a truce,
smiling on the part of Selah, coldly dignified on the part of the
Colonel.

One evening she came down unexpectedly, and surprised him sneaking in
with one enormous bunch of June roses which he had brought in from the
farm.

"How lovely, and how sweet of you to think of me!" she exclaimed.

"I did not think of you, and these are not for you. If I'd been
gathering flowers for you, Selah, I should have brought bachelor
buttons!" he answered as he passed out into the darkened avenue, still
carrying his posy ludicrously upside down.

It was another month before she or any one else knew what he did with
them.

She had tried to put Bob Sasnett out of her thought