He laughed quietly. “Have your own way, dear. You always have had it where I am concerned. But,” and here he dropped into his dry, whimsical drawl, “if I were you I wouldn’t begin getting a trousseau together until after my birthday next month. You might be wasting a lot of time and money.”
“Oh, Oliver, don’t say such things!” she cried hotly. “I wish that old gypsy were here. I’d wring her neck!”
Mrs. Sage was holding forth in her most effective English as they entered the sitting-room. She may have eyed them narrowly for a second or two, but that was all. She had an attentive audience; the division of interest due to the return of absentees was of extremely short duration; she knew how to hold the center of the stage once she got it.
“As a matter of fact, they’re shorter in Rumley than they are in London. I’ve seen more knees since I got back to Rumley than I saw all the time I was in London. And that, my dear Mrs. Grimes, despite the fact that London has more knees than any other city in the world. My daughter has provided me with a hundred surprises since—I don’t mean that she has a hundred knees, of course—what I mean to say is that Jane merely yawns when I begin in a hushed voice to tell her of the very latest crazes and vices of London. She yawns, I say, and proceeds to inform me that they are all old in Rumley—old, mind you. It really seems that just about the time poor old London is struggling to learn a new dance, Rumley is completely fed up with it. I go about in a sort of daze. I wish—I devoutly wish—I could remember all the things I’ve learned since I got back to Rumley. Poor Herbert maintains that—”
At this juncture Sammy Parr, who had been observing Oliver very closely, got up from his chair and marched across the room, his hand extended.
“Congratulations, old man!” he shouted joyously.
And little old Mrs. Grimes, from her place on the sofa, remarked as she leaned back with a sigh of content:
“Well, goodness knows it’s about time.”
Proving that since the entrance of the lovers the great Josephine had failed signally to hold her audience spellbound.