"What are you wondering, Mr. Lothian?"
—"If you realise how easy it is to be by the sea. I know it's cheek to ask you—or at least I suppose it is, but let's go!"
"How do you mean, Mr. Lothian?"
"Let's motor down to Brighton now, at once. Let's dine at the Metropole, and go and sit on the pier afterwards, and then rush home under the stars whenever we feel inclined. Will you!"
"How splendid!" she cried, "now! at once? get out of everything?"
"Yes, now. I am to be the fairy godmother. You have only to say the magic word, and I will wave my wand. The blue heat mists of evening will be over the ripe Sussex cornfields, and we shall see the poppies drinking in the blood of the sinking sun with their burnt red mouths. And then, when we have dined, the moon will wash the sea with silver, the stars will come out like golden rain and the Queen Moon will be upon her throne! We shall see the long, lit front of Brighton like a horned crescent of topaz against the black velvet of the downs. And while we watch it under the moon, the breeze shall bring us faint echoes of the fairy flutes from Prospero's enchanted Island—'But doth suffer a sea-change into something rich and strange—' And then the sea will take up the burthen 'Ding-dong, ding-dong bell.' Now say the magic word!"
"There is magic in the Magician's voice already, and I needs must answer. Yes! and oh, yes, YES a thousand times!"
"The commandments of convention mean nothing to you?"
"They are the Upper Ten Commandments, not mine."
"Then I will go and command my dragon. I know where you live. Be ready in an hour!"