“Well, I’m not,” she answered. “She can do her utmost. She can laugh as much as she pleases.”
“She shall be given no chance,” he answered eagerly. “See, Katherine! Listen!... All that matters is that we should be married. She can’t touch us then—Garth can’t touch us, the family can’t touch us. I suddenly saw it as an inspiration—that you’ve got to come up with me now—to London. We’ll get a special licence. We’ll be married to-morrow. If we catch the five-thirty from Truxe we’ll be up there soon after midnight. We can get a trap in Clinton to drive us over. It’s got to be. It’s just got to be. There can be no alternative.”
She shook her head smiling. “What a baby you are, Phil! Just because Aunt Aggie lost her temper last night we’ve got to be married in half an hour. And what about our promise to father of a year’s engagement?”
“That’s all right,” he answered eagerly. “If your father had wanted to break off the engagement before the year’s up he’d have done so, you can be sure.”
She laughed. “But I don’t want to be married all in a minute. You don’t know how women care about trousseaux and presents and bells and—”
“Ah! Please, Katie!... It’s most awfully serious! Please—”
She was grave then. They stood up together on the little beach, her arm round his neck.
“Phil. I do understand better than you think. But do you know what it would mean if we were to run away now like this? My mother would never forgive me. It would mean that I was throwing off everything—the place, mother, all my life.... Of course I would throw it away for you if that were the only course to take. But it isn’t the only course. You see life exaggerated, Phil. Everything that happened yesterday has irritated you. To-morrow—”
“To-morrow may be too late,” he answered her. “At least give my idea half an hour, I’ll go off now for a walk by myself. In half an hour’s time I’ll be back. Do your best for me.”
She looked at him, bent forward and kissed him.