"And you really want to disappear into this incomparably rural retreat?"
"Don't you think it's a perfect plan? We shall, at least, have time to breathe."
"Yes, there'll be plenty of time—for everything," he agreed.
One matter troubled the Colonel.
"It'll have to be as Mr. and Mrs. Sterne, you know, Ferlie. Not that that little Jellybrand is of a suspicious nature—they won't want a passport from him, hereafter, to prove that of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. But, hang it all, I'm standing sponsor for you, and I desire to take my undeservedly unblemished reputation to the grave. And you and Cyprian don't look at one another with either a brotherly or a sisterly regard. Best make it 'Ferlie Sterne,' and no questions asked."
"As if it were necessary for me to wear Cyprian's hat to indicate that I have belonged to him since the world began," stormed Ferlie. "All this bother comes from Civilization's idiotic habit of changing a woman's name. I am just 'Ferlie Marguerite' in this Evolution, and that's all about it. I'd rather be 'Ferlie Cyprian' than 'Sterne'; which is only half his name, because it certainly wasn't his mother's."
But Uncle Ricky was not going to be drawn into any more Ferlie-esque controversy.
"In whatever capacity you belonged to Cyprian twelve thousand years ago," he said, "and in whatever capacity you intend to belong to him when there is no more marrying and giving in marriage, you're landing on Car Nicobar as his lawful, or unlawful, wife."