"That was evident," replied the colonel jestingly. "Heavens! Have you really cares of state, that you walk five times round this fountain, bump into me, and start to go on without so much as a how-do-you-do?"
"I'm absent-minded," Carmichael admitted.
"Not always, my friend."
"No, not always. You have some other meaning?"
"That is possible. Now, I do not believe that it was absent-mindedness which made you step in between me and that pretty goose-girl, the other night."
"Ah!" Carmichael was all alertness.
"It was not, I believe?"
"It was coldly premeditated," said Carmichael, folding his arms over his cane which he still held behind his back. His attitude and voice were pleasant.
"It was not friendly."
"Not to you, perhaps. But that happens to be an innocent girl, Colonel. You're no Herod. There was nothing selfish in my act. You really annoyed her."
"Pretense; they always begin that way."
