But yet the colonel could not find it in his heart to be angry with her.

He was very angry with Merryon, so angry that for a whole fortnight he scarcely spoke to him.
But when the end of the fortnight came, and with it the first break in the rains, little Mrs.Merryon went smiling forth and returned his call.
"Are you still being cross with Billikins ?" she asked him, while her hand lay engagingly in his.

"Because it's really not his fault, you know.

If he sent me to Kamchatka, I should still come back." "You wouldn't if you belonged to me," said Colonel Davenant, with a grudging smile.
She laughed and shook her head.

"Perhaps I shouldn't--not unless I loved you as dearly as I love Billikins.