"What about Jim?" I asked.

"Oh, Jim will forgive me!"

"You will break his heart and ruin his life."

"No, no; he will forgive me."

"He will murder de Lapp! Oh, Edie, how could you bring such disgrace
and misery upon us?"

"Ah, now you are scolding!" she cried, and down came the window.

I waited some little time, and tapped, for I had much still to ask her;
but she would return no answer, and I thought that I could hear her
sobbing. At last I gave it up; and I was about to go into the house,
for it was nearly dark now, when I heard the click of the garden gate.
It was de Lapp himself.

But as he came up the path he seemed to me to be either mad or drunk.
He danced as he walked, cracked his fingers in the air, and his eyes
blazed like two will-o'-the-wisps. "_Voltigeurs!_" he shouted;
"_Voltigeurs de la Garde!_" just as he had done when he was off his
head; and then suddenly, "_En avant! en avant!_" and up he came, waving
his walking-cane over his head. He stopped short when he saw me looking
at him, and I daresay he felt a bit ashamed of himself.

"Hola, Jock!" he cried. "I didn't thought anybody was there. I am in
what you call the high spirits to-night."