FullReads

‘You horrid!’ Barbara shakes her mop of hair at the gardener. ‘Dear, don’t mind him. And every time he says they are his flowers and his apples, you tell me, and I shall say to his face that they are yours.’

‘The courage of those young things!’ says the happy Colonel.

Dering’s underlip becomes very pronounced, but he goes off into the garden. Barbara attempts to attend to the Colonel’s needs.

‘Let me make you comfy–the way granny does it.’

She arranges his cushions clumsily.

‘That is not quite the way she does it,’ the Colonel says softly, ‘Do you call her granny, Barbara?’

‘She asked me to–for practice.’ Barbara is curious. ‘Don’t you remember why?’

Of course the Colonel remembers.

‘I know! Billy boy.’

‘You are quick to-day. Now, wait till I get your cane.’

‘I don’t need my cane while I’m sitting.’

‘You look so beau’ful, sitting holding your cane.’ She knocks over his cushions. ‘Oh dear! I am a clumsy.’

Politely, ‘Not at all, but perhaps if I were to do it for myself.’ He makes himself comfortable. ‘That’s better. Thank you, Barbara, very much.’

‘I didn’t do it. I’m all thumbs. What a ghastly nurse I should make.’

‘Nurse?’ The Colonel’s troubles return to him. ‘Who is she, Barbara?’

‘Who is who, dear?’

‘That nurse.’

‘There’s no nurse here.’

‘Isn’t there?’

Barbara feels that she is of less use than ever to-day. ‘Where is granny?’

‘She has gone down to the village to a wedding.’

‘There’s no wedding. Who could be being married?’

‘I think it’s people I know, but I can’t remember who they are. I thought you went too, Barbara.’

‘Not I. Catch me missing it if there had been a wedding!’

‘You and the nurse.’

‘Dear, you have just been imagining things again. Shall I play to you, or sing?’ She knocks over a chair, ‘Oh dear, everything catches in me. Would you like me to “Robin Adair,” dear?’

The Colonel is polite, but firm, ‘No, thank you, Barbara.’ For a few moments he forgets her; his mind has gone wandering again. ‘Barbara, the house seems so empty. Where are Billy and Karl?’

‘Billy is where Karl is, you may be sure.’

‘And where is Karl?’

‘He is where Billy boy is, you may be sure.’

‘And where are they both?’

‘Not far from where Barbara is, you bet.’ She flutters to the window and waves her hand. ‘Do you hear Karl’s flute? They have been down all the morning at the pool where the alder is, trying to catch that bull-trout.’

‘They didn’t get him, I’ll swear!’

‘You can ask them.’

‘I spent a lot of my youth trying to get that bull-trout. I tumbled in there sixty years ago.’

‘I tumbled in sixty minutes ago! It can’t be the same trout, dear.’

‘Same old rascal!’

Billy and Karl come in by the window, leaving a fishing-rod outside. They are gay, careless, attractive youths.

BARBARA.
with her nose in the air, ‘You muddy things!’

COLONEL.
gaily firing his dart, ‘Did you get the bull-trout, Billy boy?’

BILLY.
‘He’s a brute that.’

COLONEL.
‘He is, you know.’

BILLY.
‘He came up several times and had a look at my fly. Didn’t flick it, or do anything as complimentary as that. Just yawned and went down.’

COLONEL.
‘Yawned, did he? Used to wink in my time. Did you and Billy fish at Heidelberg, Karl?’

KARL.
‘We were more worthily employed, sir, but we did unbend at times. Billy, do you remember–‘ He begins a gay dance.

BILLY.
‘Not I.’ Then he joins in.

BARBARA.
‘Young gentlemen, how disgraceful!’ She joins in.

COLONEL.
‘Harum-scarums!’

KARL.
‘Does he know about you two?’

BILLY.
‘He often forgets, I’ll tell him again. Grandfather, Barbara and I have something to say to you. It’s this.’ He puts his arm round Barbara.