I do not want
to be narrow-minded, Mrs. Dr. dear, but I still think it is better not
to mention such things.'
"Miranda grew confidential over our vermin shirts and told me all her
troubles. She is desperately unhappy. She is engaged to Joe Milgrave and
Joe joined up in October and has been training in Charlottetown ever
since. Her father was furious when he joined and forbade Miranda ever to
have any dealing or communication with him again. Poor Joe expects to go
overseas any day and wants Miranda to marry him before he goes, which
shows that there have been 'communications' in spite of
Whiskers-on-the-moon. Miranda wants to marry him but cannot, and she
declares it will break her heart.
"'Why don't you run away and marry him?' I said. It didn't go against my
conscience in the least to give her such advice. Joe Milgrave is a
splendid fellow and Mr. Pryor fairly beamed on him until the war broke
out and I know Mr. Pryor would forgive Miranda very quickly, once it was
over and he wanted his housekeeper back. But Miranda shook her silvery
head dolefully.
"'Joe wants me to but I can't. Mother's last words to me, as she lay on
her dying-bed, were, "Never, never run away, Miranda," and I promised.'
"Miranda's mother died two years ago, and it seems, according to
Miranda, that her mother and father actually ran away to be married
themselves. To picture Whiskers-on-the-moon as the hero of an elopement
is beyond my power.
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