Then he shut his mouth hard and walked on.
"It's only my joke, Jerome," laughed the Colonel, but there was no responsive smile on Jerome's face.

Colonel Lamson eyed him narrowly.
"The Squire had a letter from his wife yesterday," he said, with no preface.

Then he started, for Jerome turned upon him a face as of one who is braced for death.
"How--is she ?" he gasped out.
"Who?
Mrs.Merritt?
No, confound it all, my boy, she's better! Hold on to yourself, my boy; I tell you she's better." Jerome gave a deep sigh, and walked ahead so fast that the Colonel had to quicken his pace.

"Wait a minute," he panted; "I want a word with you." Jerome stopped, and the Colonel came up and faced him.

"Look here, young man," he said, with sudden wrath, "if I thought for a minute you had jilted that girl, I wouldn't stop for words; I would take you by the neck like a puppy, and I'd break every bone in your body." Jerome squared his shoulders involuntarily; his face, confronting the Colonel's, twitched.