His tone was so decided that the child’s lips pouted, but before she could speak a shadow leaned over their table.  It was the companion of the “fine lady.”

“Don’t seem to see us, Colonel,” he said with coarse familiarity, laying his hand on the colonel’s shoulder.  “Florry wants to know what’s up.”

The colonel rose at the touch.  “Tell her, sir,” he said huskily, but with slow deliberation, “that I ‘am up’ and leaving this place with my ward, Miss Stannard.  Good-morning.”  He lifted Pansy with infinite courtesy from her chair, took her hand, strolled to the counter, threw down a gold piece, and passing the table of the astonished fair one with an inflated breast, swept with Pansy out of the shop.  In the street he paused, bidding the child go on; and then, finding he was not followed by the woman’s escort, rejoined his little companion.

For a few moments they walked silently side by side.  Then Pansy’s curiosity, getting the better of her pout, demanded information.  She had applied a child’s swift logic to the scene.  The colonel was angry, and had punished the woman for something.  She drew closer to his side, and looking up with her big eyes, said confidentially.

“What had she been a-doing?”

The colonel was amazed, embarrassed, and speechless.  He was totally unprepared for the question, and as unable to answer it.  His abrupt departure from the shop had been to evade the very truth now demanded of him.  Only a supreme effort of mendacity was left him.  He wiped his brow with his handkerchief, coughed, and began deliberately:—­

“The—­er—­lady in question is in the habit of using a scent called—­er—­patchouli, a—­er—­perfume exceedingly distressing to me.  I detected it instantly on her entrance.  I wished to avoid it—­without further contact.  It is—­er—­singular but accepted fact that some people are—­er—­peculiarly affected by odors.  I had—­er—­old cherished friend who always—­er—­fainted at the odor of jasmine; and I was intimately acquainted with General Bludyer, who—­er—­dropped like a shot on the presentation of a simple violet.  The—­er—­habit of using such perfumes excessively in public,” continued the colonel, looking down upon the innocent Pansy, and speaking in tones of deadly deliberation, “cannot be too greatly condemned, as well as the habit of—­er—­frequenting places of public resort in extravagant costumes, with—­er—­individuals who—­er—­intrude upon domestic privacy.  I trust you will eschew such perfumes, places, costumes, and—­er—­companions forever and—­on all occasions!” The colonel had raised his voice to his forensic emphasis, and Pansy, somewhat alarmed, assented.  Whether she entirely accepted the colonel’s explanation was another matter.