The worst of it was, it distressed the old lady so; she admired Beaton as much as she respected the colonel, and she admired Beaton, Fulkerson thought, rather more than Miss Leighton did; he asked March if he had noticed them together.

March had noticed them, but without any very definite impression except that Beaton seemed to give the whole evening to the girl.

Afterward he recollected that he had fancied her rather harassed by his devotion, and it was this point that he wished to present for his wife's opinion.
"Girls often put on that air," she said.

"It's one of their ways of teasing.

But then, if the man was really very much in love, and she was only enough in love to be uncertain of herself, she might very well seem troubled.