The next moment the three men stepped towards him.
"We have come, sir," said Colonel Starbottle in his precisest speech but
his jauntiest manner, "to offer you a full and ample apology--a personal
apology--which only supplements that full public apology that my
principal, sir, this gentleman," indicating the editor of the "Pioneer,"
"has this morning made in the columns of his paper, as you will
observe," producing a newspaper. "We have, sir," continued the
colonel loftily, "only within the last twelve hours become aware of
the--er--REAL circumstances of the case. We would regret that the affair
had gone so far already, if it had not given us, sir, the opportunity
of testifying to your gallantry. We do so gladly; and if--er--er--a FEW
YEARS LATER, Mr. Harcourt, you should ever need--a friend in any matter
of this kind, I am, sir, at your service." John Milton gazed half
inquiringly, half uneasily at Jack.
"It's all right, Milt," he said sotto voce. "Shake hands all round and
let's go to breakfast. And I rather think that editor wants to employ
you HIMSELF."
It was true, for when that night he climbed eagerly the steep homeward
hill he carried with him the written offer of an engagement on the
"Pioneer." As he entered the door his wife's nurse and companion met him
with a serious face. There had been a strange and unexpected change in
the patient's condition, and the doctor had already been there twice.
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