"Of course. Mabel isn't cut out for an old maid."
"Perhaps Dicky thinks that I am," said Mabel, looking slyly at the untidy inventor; "that is, if he ever thinks of anything but airships."
"I think of no end of things," said Weston rather crossly, "and I don't see why you are in such a hurry to get married."
"I am not in a hurry."
"Really," said Cannington uneasily, "this conversation is growing personal."
"We all belong to the family here," said Lady Denham wearily. "I look on Cyrus as a son. His mother and I were at school together. A very charming girl she was, too."
"Is Dicky one of the family?" asked Mabel, with a glance at the inventor.
"Of course I am," he said hotly, for Mabel seemed to be rousing him out of his absent-mindedness, "haven't I known you and Cannington for years?"
"I don't think we have ever known you," said Cannington with a laugh, "you are always in the clouds."
"As an airship inventor should be," said I pointedly. "Airship," said Lady Mabel teasingly, "it's nothing but a gas balloon."