"Selfish? By Jove!" he exclaimed. "Little you know about selfishness when you accuse me of it."
"Oh, Vernon," I said, "I'm just so happy I scarcely know what to do. But because I am so happy I don't want the one I love best in all the world after yourself to be out in the cold."
"What do you mean by that, Heather dear?"
"Just what I say. I don't want to leave my own darling father absolutely miserable."
"Jove! you're right there. But what can you do? You can't part a man from his lawful wife."
"No more I can—that's quite true; but I do want to see him and—I must see Lady Helen, too. Vernon, you'll help me, won't you?"
"By all means," he answered. "But now, let us talk of ourselves. How soon do you think we can be married—in a fortnight? Surely a fortnight would be long enough for any reasonable girl."
"I am by no means certain of that," I replied. "I will marry you, Vernon, as soon as ever I can put other matters right."
"Oh, but I have a voice in this, for I mean to marry you without a moment's delay—that is, I mean that I will give you one fortnight and not an hour beyond. It is the fashion now to be married by banns. Well, we'll have our banns cried on Sunday next and on the following Sunday and the Sunday after, and we can be married on the Monday after that. That's about right, isn't it? That's as it ought to be."
"Vernon, you are so—so impulsive."