"I knew it," said Lady Adela, in a hollow voice.
"And I have brought her down here to make your acquaintance, that's all!" concluded the happy lover, apparently surprised that his relationship to Miss Welwyn should ever have been a matter of doubt to any one. "We met the goat outside the station--"
Lady Adela uttered a deep groan. Mr. Mainwaring rose from his seat and advanced upon his tall son, who still leaned easily against the mantel-piece, with his feet upon the hearthrug and his head above the clouds.
"My dearest boy," he said, patting Dicky affectionately and coaxingly upon the shoulder, "do you realise that you are our only son, and that as such we take a not unreasonable interest in your welfare? Would you mind postponing the goat for a moment and giving us a more explicit account of the young lady? I had only the merest glimpse of her just now," he concluded, doggedly avoiding his wife's eye, "but she struck me as charming--charming!"
Dicky's air of cheerful inanity fell from him like a cloak. Exultantly he took his father by the shoulders.
"Dad," he shouted, "she's the most blessed little darling that ever walked this earth! She's a princess! She's a fairy! She's a--"
The rhapsodist broke off short, and flushed red.
"Forgive me," he said, "for waffling like that, but I don't quite know what I 'm doing just at present. Dad, I'm the happiest man that ever lived!"
"My boy, my boy," cried little Mr. Mainwaring, "I'm glad--I'm glad!"
And father and son, regardless of the feelings of the unfortunate lady upon the sofa, proceeded to shake one another violently and continuously by both hands.