FullReads

COLONEL.
smiling, ‘I know–I know. There’s nothing like it. I’m very glad, Barbara.’

BARBARA.
‘You see, dear, I’ve loved Billy boy since the days when he tried to catch the bull-trout with a string and a bent pin, and I held on to his pinafore to prevent his tumbling in. We used to play at school at marrying and giving in marriage, and the girl who was my bridegroom had always to take the name of Billy. “Do you, woman, take this man Billy–” the clergyman in skirts began, and before I could answer diffidently, some other girl was sure to shout, “I should rather think she does.”‘

COLONEL.
in high good humour, ‘Don’t forget the ring, Billy. You know, when I was married I think I couldn’t find the ring!’

KARL.
‘Were you married here, sir?’

COLONEL.
‘Yes, at the village church.’

BILLY.
‘So were my father and mother.’

COLONEL.
as his eyes wander to the garden, ‘I remember walking back with my wife and bringing her in here through the window. She kissed some of the furniture.’

BILLY.
‘I suppose you would like a grander affair, Barbara?’

BARBARA.
‘No, just the same.’

BILLY.
‘I hoped you would say that.’

BARBARA.
‘But, Billy, I’m to have such a dream of a wedding gown. Granny is going with me to London, to choose it’–laying her head on the Colonel’s shoulder–‘if you can do without her for a day, dear.’

COLONEL.
gallantly, ‘I shall go with you, I couldn’t trust you and granny to choose the gown.’

KARL.
‘You must often be pretty lonely, sir, when we are all out and about enjoying ourselves.’

COLONEL.
‘They all say that. But that is the time when I’m not lonely, Karl. It’s then I see things most clearly–the past, I suppose. It all comes crowding back to me–India, the Crimea, India again–and it’s so real, especially the people. They come and talk to me. I seem to see them; I don’t know they haven’t been here, Billy, till your granny tells me afterwards.’

BILLY.
‘Yes, I know, I wonder where granny is.’

BARBARA.
‘It isn’t often she leaves you for so long, dear.’

COLONEL.
‘She told me she had to go out, but I forget where. Oh, yes, she has gone down to the village to a wedding.’

BILLY.
‘A wedding?’

BARBARA.
‘It’s curious how he harps on that.’

COLONEL.
‘She said to me to listen and I would hear the wedding bells.’

BARBARA.
‘Not to-day, dear.’

BILLY.
‘Best not to worry him.’

BARBARA.
‘But granny says we should try to make things clear to him.’

BILLY.
‘Was any one with granny when she said she was going to a wedding?’

COLONEL.
like one begging her to admit it, ‘You were there, Barbara.’

BARBARA.
‘No, dear. He said that to me before. And something about a nurse.’

COLONEL.
obstinately, ‘She was there, too.’

BILLY.
‘Any one else?’

COLONEL.
‘There was that soldier.’

BARBARA.
‘A soldier also!’

COLONEL.
‘Just those three.’

BILLY.
‘But that makes four. Granny and Barbara and a nurse and a soldier.’

COLONEL.
‘They were all there; but there were only three.’