"I say, God bless them."
"Maman!" cried Marjolaine, hugging her.
"And I, too, say God bless them!" cried Lord Otford, heartily.
"Marjory!" shouted Jack; and in a moment the lovers were in each other's
arms.
"H'm," suggested Lord Otford, drily, "I believe this is a public
thoroughfare!"
The lovers separated abashed. "Oh, sir!" said Jack, "please give me
back that document."
"Why, no, Jack," answered his father, "I want that." And he and Madame
glanced at each other guiltily.
"But, sir!" protested Jack.
"Um--the fact is--" Lord Otford had never felt so shy in his life. In
vain he appealed to Madame for support; she was much too busy examining
the very pretty point of her very pretty shoe. "I say, the fact
is--with slight alterations--it may come in useful. Er--I, too, am John
Sayle--and--um--I, too, am going to get married."
"Marjory," said Jack, very gravely, "my father's trying to be funny."
But Marjolaine's attention was divided between her mother and Lord
Otford. The clumsy shyness of the one and the pretty confusion of the
other gave her, as she would have said in French, furiously to think.
Besides which, we must not forget she was in her Mother's confidence.
"Maman," she said, roguishly, "I believe!--Lord Otford! I believe--!"
"Believe, my child, believe!" cried Lord Otford, glad not to have to
enter into further explanations. He took her pretty head between his
hands, and kissed her. "Here 's the document, Jack; and--ah--there is a
pleasant seat under the elm; and agreeable retirement in
the--ah--Gazebo."
So he and Madame sat in the arbour, and Jack and Marjolaine sat under
the elm, and the leaves of that wise old tree having been awakened by
Jack, asked each other with a pleasant rustle which couple was the
happier of the two.
There was a great to-do at the Admiral's. I think Mrs. Poskett had been
watching the lovers; for now the door burst open, and the Admiral and
Jim hauled out the little brass cannon, followed by Mrs. Poskett, all in
a flutter with pleasant alarm. While they were planting the gun close
behind the unconscious Eyesore's back, the lamplighter came running
in--he always ran--and put out the first lamp. Barbara and Basil came
slowly out of their house, and leant over the railings in a close
embrace, while Ruth stood watching them from the upper window. Basil,
indeed, had brought his fiddle.
"Haul her out!" roared Sir Peter, alluding to the gun.