rl teased, cajoled, tormented, amused,
and worried the Colonel's eldest. Of late, since his twenty-first
birthday, he had turned the tables on her, and was teasing and worrying
her with his love-blind persistence. That she had given him a decided
answer more than once made no impression on his determined spirit. In
her despair Aileen went to Octavius; but he gave her cold comfort.

"What'd I tell you two years ago, Aileen? Didn't I say you couldn't play
with even a slow-match like Roman, if you didn't want a fire later on?
And you wouldn't hear a word to me."

"But I didn't know, Tave! How could I think that just because a boy tags
round after you from morning till night for the sake of being amused,
that when he gets to be twenty-one he is going to keep on tagging round
after you for the rest of his days? I never saw such a leech! He simply
won't accept the fact once for all that I won't have him; but he's got
to--so now!"

Octavius smiled at the sudden little flurry; he was used to them.

"I take it Roman doesn't think you know your own mind."

"He doesn't! Well, he'll find out I do, then. Oh, dear, why couldn't he
just go on being Romanzo Caukins with no nonsense about him, and not
make such a goose of himself! Anyway, I'm thankful he's gone; it got so
I couldn't so much as tell him to harness up for Mrs. Champney, that he
didn't consider it a sign of 'yielding' on my part!" She laughed out.
"Oh, Tavy dear, what should I do without you!--Now if I could make an
impression on you, it might be worth while," she added mischievously.

Octavius would have failed to be the man he was had he not felt
flattered; he smiled on her indulgently. "Well, I shouldn't tag round
after you much if I was thirty year younger; 't ain't my way. But
there's one thing, Aileen, I want to say to you, and if you've got any
common sense you'll heed me this time: I want you to be mighty careful
how you manage with Luigi. You've got no slow-match to play with this
time, let me tell you; you've got a regular sleeping volcano like some
of them he was born near; and it won't do, I warn you. He ain't Romanzo
Caukins--Roman's home made; but t'other is a foreigner; they're
different."

"Oh, don't preach, Octavius." She always called him by his unabbreviated
name when she was irritated. "I like well enough to sing with Luigi, and
go rowing with him, and play tennis, and have the good times, but it's
nonsense for you to think he means anything seri