Mr. Bunting smote his forehead.
"So it must," he said. "I never thought of that. What a fearful complication! And then he, too, said I was a liar. So I took him by the collar and led him to the window, and I opened it and dropped him out. And then the one you call Williams came, and he also was indignant, and said I was to deny it, and I wouldn't of course. And then we fought, and the furniture was much disarranged and Thicksides went under the sofa, and at last I got him outside, and finished him with Liddell and Scott. And now you know all! In your turn you can explain what it means. I beg you to do it, and then we will have some tea."
And Bob explained the whole story.
"You might have seen it in the papers," said Bob.
"I don't read 'em," said Bunting, "except to turn a Times leader into Greek. But it seems a complicated situation, doesn't it?"
"It is very complicated," sighed Bob, "and my grandmother is very ill about it. And now she will wonder if it's you, after all!"
"Dear me, so she will," said Bunting. "Have some tea."
They had tea, and Bob rose to go.
"Will you write to the Times, and say you haven't married her?" he asked.
"Certainly not," said Mr. Bunting. "Didn't I say to the others that I threw down-stairs that I had married her?"