Third installment of a series of stories thematically connected by Rudyard Kipling's "If," featuring Colonel Brandon.


If you can wait, and not be tired by waiting…


Her laugh, golden and bright, echoed across the lawn, and he couldn't help but turn his head toward it. Miss Dashwood, so sensitive and decorous, gently steered the conversation where he wanted it to go.

"It does one good to see her happy," Elinor said with a smile but a rueful shake of her head. "However many grass-stains must later be scrubbed out."

And indeed, Miss Marianne knelt in the grass unheeding, draping her newly-crafted flower crown on Willoughby's reclining head.

"Yes," Brandon replied, and his eyes softened. He turned back to Miss Dashwood. "There are some whose joy always gives others joy, regardless of the circumstances."

"Then I am glad she is one such person," returned Elinor, with knowing and gently sympathetic eyes, "for all our sakes."