"Monday will do for that," says Neilson. "But Monday might not do for you. I decided not to risk the Sunday. By-the-bye, I have something to say to you, presently, if you can spare me a moment."
"Certainly," says Margaret, whereon the Colonel moves away to talk to someone else.
"Same old game, I suppose," suggests Gower, in a sweetly confidential tone, when he has gone. "Find it a little slow, don't you, knowing exactly what he's going to say to you, presently, when you have spared him a moment?"
"I really don't know," says Margaret, bringing a dignified eye to bear upon him.
"No? Then you ought. It isn't that you haven't had opportunities enough. Time has not been denied you. But as you say you don't know, I think it my duty to prepare you; to——"
"Really, Randal, I don't wish to know anything. I dare say Colonel
Neilson is quite capable of——"
"He appears to me," severely, "to be thoroughly in-capable. He ought to have impressed it upon your brain in half the time he's taken to do it. It is quite a little speech, and only firmness was required to make you remember it. This is it——"
"I don't wish to hear anything," says Margaret with suspicious haste.
"But I wish you to hear it. I think it bad to have things sprung upon one unawares. Now listen. 'For the nine hundred and ninetieth time, my beloved Margaret, I implore you on my bended knees to make me a happy man!' You remember it now?"
"No, indeed; I never heard such an absurd speech in my life."