ousekeeper repeated.
'There's them quails Mr. Dallas sent over; they's nice and fat, and to
be sure quails had ought to be eaten immediate. I can roast two or
three of 'em, if you're pleased to order it; but the colonel, it's my
opinion he won't care what you have. The gentlemen learns it so in the
army, I'm thinkin'. The colonel never did give himself no care about
what he had for dinner, nor for no other time.'

Esther knew that; however, she ordered the quails, and watched eagerly
for her father. He came, too, that same evening. But the quails hardly
got their deserts, nor Esther neither, for that matter. The colonel
seemed to be unregardful of the one as much as of the other. He gave
his child a sufficiently kind greeting, indeed, when he first came in;
but then he took his usual seat on the sofa, without his usual book,
and sat as if lost in thought. Tea was served immediately, and I
suppose the colonel had had a thin dinner, for he consumed a quail and
a half; yet satisfactory as this was in itself, Esther could not see
that her father knew what he was eating. And after tea he still
neglected his book, and sat brooding, with his head leaning on his
hand. He had not said one word to his daughter concerning the success
or non-success of his mission; and eager as she was, it was not in
accordance with the way she had been brought up that she should
question him. She asked him nothing further than about his own health
and condition, and the length and character of his journey; which
questions were shortly disposed of, and then the colonel sat there with
his head in his hand, doing nothing that he was wont to do. Esther
feared something was troubling him, and could not bear to leave him to
himself. She came near softly, and very softly let her finger-tips
touch her father's brow and temples, and stroke back the hair from
them. She ventured no more.

Perhaps Colonel Gainsborough could not bear so much. Perhaps he was
reminded of the only other fingers which had had a right since his
boyhood to touch him so. Yet he would not repel the gentle hand, and to
avoid doing that he did another very uncommon thing; he drew Esther
down into his arms and put her on his knee, leaning his head against
her shoulder. It was exceeding pleasant to the girl, as a touch of
sympathy and confidence; however, for that night the confidence went no
further; the colonel said nothing at all. He was in truth overcome with
the sadness of leaving