“You do look nice when you laugh, Ethel. Ah! here they are, I can hear Charlie’s voice.”
They went down to greet the new-comers.
“I seem to know you quite well already, Captain Dorricot,” Ethel remarked as they were introduced.
“I’m afraid I can hardly say that I know you at all,” Charlie replied, “as Jim would never venture on a description, however greatly I encouraged him, feeling, no doubt, his inability to do the subject justice.”
“That’s really rather nice, you know,” Ted commented, with a grave air of abstraction; and the girl blushed becomingly.
An awkward pause ensued. Then four people spoke together. Three stopped respectfully.
“Can you guess, Jim, what Ted has given us for a present?”
“That’s a hint for you, Charlie. Open your packages at once. I am about to marry a most sordid little woman, whose absorbing thought is: ‘Presents, and how to obtain them’.”
“Sir, you speak that which is not true. Look at this!”
“Whew! You’ve been looting, young man. Where?”