"I'll tell you all something," he says, "though I hardly think I ought, if you will swear not to betray me."
This speech has the effect of electricity. They all start; with one consent they give the desired oath. The cards fall to the ground, the fortune forgotten; the mare becomes of very secondary importance; another stitch drops in the fated sock.
"They've done it at last," says Mr. Darling, in a low, compressed voice. "It is an accomplished fact. I heard 'em myself!"
As he makes this last extraordinary remark he looks over his left shoulder, as though fearful of being overheard.
"Who?" "What?" say Mona and Dorothy, in one breath.
"Why, Jack and Violet, of course. They've had it out. They are engaged!"
"No!" says Nicholas; meaning, "How very delightful!"
"And you heard them? Nolly, explain yourself," says his sister, severely.
"I'm going to," says Nolly, "if you will just give me time. Oh, what a day I've been havin', and how dear! You know I told you I was going to the orchard for a stroll and with a view to profitable meditation. Well, I went. At the upper end of the garden there are, as you know, some Portugal laurels, from which one can get a splendid survey of the country, and in an evil moment it occurred to me that I should like to climb one of them and look at the Chetwoode Hills. I had never got higher than a horse's back since my boyhood, and visions of my earlier days, when I was young and innocent, overcame me at that——"
"Oh, never mind your young and innocent days: we never heard of them," says Dorothy, impatiently. "Do get on to it."