"Bai Jove, trying to hush it up——"
"Mr. Awdas, I say. Mr. Awdas——"
"Ah, would you——"
"Monsieur de l'Audace!"
"Priceless!"
Among them they almost carried Jack's Herculean young form back into the sitting-room.
Captain Ross followed.
The golden head of the Sunburst Girl towered above the heads of Olwen and of Miss Walsh as they pressed upon her their enthusiastic good wishes. Laughing, flushed, sparkling, she was giving her version of that dilatory courtship of Jack's; while Mrs. Cartwright in the corner by that desk of hers, was hunting in some cache of hers for something (to wit, the last drop of Bubbly she possessed).
"Here's more surprises about your English ways," the American bride was laughing. "Here's this Bird-boy of mine——well, you all know the quick and sudden start of our engagement! There was father and I thinking maybe it wouldn't matter so much provided we had a sensible time to get to know one another in after say a year! Then yesterday Jack gets suddenly scared that we'll both be grey and rheumatic fossils if we aren't married half an hour from then.... Say, Olwen? What could I say? I don't know how he does it—it's mesmerism or a charm, I guess, for when once Jack takes it into his head——"
Here the laughter and cheering of the men broke out. The Master of the House was seen to be advancing, carrying at the full length of his young arms a tray of glasses. Mrs. Cartwright rose from the chest, smilingly holding a gold-topped bottle in either hand.