"Mr. Brent, I believe?" she said in a tone of faint surprise, as though noticing my presence for the first time.
"At your service, madam!" I answered, with another bow.
"Then I must ask you to convey my ward back to Fane Court immediately; she and the children will accompany me to London at once."
"My dear Lady Warburton," I said, fronting the lorgnette with really admirable fortitude, "it grieves me to deny you this request, but, believe me, it is impossible!"
"Impossible!" she repeated.
"Quite!" I answered. "You here behold the good ship Joyful Hope, bound for the 'Land of Heart's Delight,' and we aboard are all determined on our course."
"'An' the wind blows fair, an' our helm's a-lee, so it's heave, my mariners, all--O!'" cried the Imp in his nautical voice.
"Dear me!" ejaculated Lady Warburton, staring. "Elizabeth, be so obliging as to tell me what it all means. Why have you dragged these children from their beds to come philandering upon a horrid river at such an hour?"
"Excuse me, aunt, but she didn't drag us," protested the Imp, bowing exactly as I had done a moment before.
"Oh no, we came," nodded Dorothy.