"Always the case," growled Captain Grigsby.
Sir Charles puffed at his pipe--and then: "They were only together three weeks," he said. "And during that time she managed to cram more knowledge of everything into the boy's head than you and I have got in a lifetime. Give you my word, Grig, when he was off his chump in the fever, he raved like a poet, and an orator, and he was only an ordinary sportsman when he left home in the spring! Cleopatra, he called her one day, and I fancy that was the keynote--she must have been one of those exceptional women we read of in the sixth form."
"And fortunately never met!" said Captain Grigsby.
"I don't know," mused Sir Charles. "It might have been good to live as wildly even at the price. We've both been about the world, Grig, since the days we fastened on our cuirasses together for the first time, and each thought himself the devil of a fine fellow--but I rather doubt if we now know as much of what is really worth having as my boy there--just twenty-three years old."
"Nonsense!" snapped Captain Grigsby--but there was a tone of regret in his protest.
"Lucky to have got off without a knife or a bullet through him--dangerous nations to grapple with," he said.
"Yes--I gather some pretty heavy menace was over their heads, and that is what made the lady decamp, so we've much to be thankful for," agreed Sir Charles.
"Had she any children?" the other asked.
"Tompson says no. Rotten fellow the husband, it appears, and no heir to the throne, or principality, or whatever it is--so when I have had a talk with Hubert--Henrietta's brother, you know--the one in the Diplomatic Service, it will be easy to locate her--gathered Paul doesn't know himself."
"Pretty romance, anyway. And what will you do with the boy now, Charles?"
Paul's father puffed quite a long while at his meerschaum before he answered, and then his voice was gruffer than ever with tenderness suppressed.
"Give him his head, Grig," he said. "He's true blue underneath, and he'll come up to the collar in time, old friend--only I shall have to keep his mother's love from harrying him. Best and greatest lady in the world, my wife, but she's rather apt to jog the bridle now and then."
At this moment Paul joined them. His paleness showed less than usual beneath the sunburn, and his eyes seemed almost bright. A wave of thankful gladness filled his father's heart.