“Now! Now! Do you hear me?”
She surrendered to his will, and as he held her Michael thought grimly what an absurd paradox it was, that in order to make her consent to marry him, he like the others must play upon the baser side of her yielding nature. There were difficulties of packing and of choosing frocks and hats, but Michael had his way through them all.
“Quite an elopement,” Mrs. Gainsborough proclaimed.
“A very virtuous elopement,” said Michael, with a laugh.
“Oh, but shan’t I catch it when that Hottentot comes back!”
“Well, it’s Sylvia’s fault,” said Lily fretfully. “She shouldn’t worry me all the time to know whether I like her better than anyone else in the world.”
The man arrived with a truck for the luggage.
“Where are you going?” Mrs. Gainsborough asked. “I declare, you’re like two babes in the wood.”
“To my sister’s in Huntingdonshire,” said Michael, and he wrote out the address.
“Oh, in the country! Well, Summer’ll be on us before we know where we are. I declare, my snowdrops are quite finished.”