“You've done it now,” said Teddy, at length.
“I have,” I replied, my equanimity returning.
“I suppose I'll have to clear out too. Hang it, you needn't have got me into a mess like this,” said he, in an injured tone.
“Better a mess than a snare,” I retorted. “Let us look up a good train, eat some breakfast, and shake the dust of this house from our feet.”
He made no answer, and when we got to the house he tacitly agreed to accompany Shafthead and myself by the 11.25 train.
My things were packed. Halfred and a footman were even piling them on the carriage, and I was making my adieux, when I observed this dismissed suitor enter the hall with his customary cheerful air and no sign of departure about him.
“Are you ready? I asked him.
“They've asked me to stay till to-morrow,” he replied, with a conscious look he could not conceal, “and—er—well, there's really no necessity for going to-day. Good-bye—see you soon in town.”
“Good-bye,” said Amy, sweetly, but with a look in her eyes that belied her voice. “I am so glad we have been able to persuade one of you to stay a little longer.”
“Better a little fish than an empty dish,” I said to myself, and revolving this useful maxim in my mind I departed from Seneschal Court.