So it came about that to the poor woman the Colonel's courteous, if somewhat sarcastic, consolations were really very welcome.

It pleased him also to offer them.

The jilting he had long ago forgiven indeed, he blessed her nightly for having taken that view of her obligations, seeing that Jane Millet, as she was then, however pretty her face may once have been, had neither fortune nor connections.
"Yes, my dear Jane," he said to her confidentially one afternoon, "I assure you I often admire your foresight.

Now, if you had done the other thing, where should we have been to-day?
In the workhouse, I imagine." "I suppose so," answered Lady Rawlins, meekly, and suppressing a sigh, since for the courtly and distinguished Colonel she cherished a sentimental admiration which actually increased with age; "but you didn't always think like that, Richard." Then she glanced out of the window, and added: "Oh, there is Jonah coming home, and he looks so cross," and the poor lady shivered.
The Colonel put up his eyeglass and contemplated Jonah through the window.

He was not a pleasing spectacle.