‘What a lark!’ said the other dryly.
‘We’ll go, of course?’
‘In weather like this?’
‘Why not? Shall we be better off staying here? I now begin to remember how the name of this place was so familiar to me. She was always asking me if I knew or heard of her mother’s brother, the Lord Kilgobbin, and, to tell truth, I fancied some one had been hoaxing her with the name, and never believed that there was even a place with such a designation.’
‘Kilgobbin does not sound like a lordly title. How about Mademoiselle—what is the name?’
‘Kostalergi; they call themselves princes.’
‘With all my heart. I was only going to say, as you’ve got a sort of knack of entanglement—is there, or has there been, anything of that sort here?’
‘Flirtation—a little of what is called “spooning”—but no more. But why do you ask?’
‘First of all, you are an engaged man.’
‘All true, and I mean to keep my engagement. I can’t marry, however, till I get a mission, or something at home as good as a mission. Lady Maude knows that; her friends know it, but none of us imagine that we are to be miserable in the meantime.’