"Ah-ha—Mr. and Mrs. Graeme! Good-morning! You are none the worse for being married? Non?" as he shook hands joyously all round, with both hands at once.
"Not a bit," laughed Graeme. "We're all as happy as sandboys."
"Comment donc—sandboys? What is that?"
"Happy little boys who dispense with clothes and paddle all day in the sand and water."
"Ah—you have been bathing! What energie! And you danced till—?"
"About four o'clock, I suppose. The sun was just thinking of rising as we were thinking of retiring."
"But it is marvellous! And you are not tired?"
"The bathe has freshened us all up," said Margaret.
Then Mrs. Vicar came out at sound of their voices, and felicitated them, and begged them to rest a while in the shade. But they were all hungry, and Charles Svendt laughingly asserted that he had swallowed so much salt-water, in rescuing Miss Penny from a watery grave, that his constitution absolutely needed a tiny tot of whisky, or the consequences might be serious.
So they went laughingly on their way, and Charles tried his best to get Miss Penny to go and show him the way to the Bel-Air, pleading absolute confusion still as to the points of the compass and the lie of the land.