“Do you mean——” she began eagerly.
“We’ve been and gone and got engaged,” explained Quarrington.
“My dears!” Lady Arabella jumped up with the agility of twenty rather than seventy and proceeded to pour out her felicitations. Incidentally she kissed everybody all round, including Quarrington, and her keen old hawk’s eyes grew all soft and luminous like a girl’s.
Coppertop was hugely excited.
“Will the wedding be to-morrow?” he asked hopefully. “And shall I be a page and carry the Fairy Lady’s train?”
Magda smiled at him.
“Of course you shall be a page, Topkins. But the wedding won’t be quite as soon as to-morrow,” she told him.
“Why not?” insinuated Quarrington calmly. “There are such things as special licences, you know.”
“Don’t be silly,” replied Magda scathingly. “I’ve only just been saved from drowning, and I don’t propose to take on such a risk as matrimony till I’ve had time to recover my nerve.”
Lady Arabella surveyed them both with a species of irritated approval.