“Oh, no! I can see now that I was never in love with poor Eustace. I was thinking of a man I got engaged to on the boat!”
Mr. Bennett sat bolt upright in bed, and stared incredulously at his surprising daughter. His head was beginning to swim.
“Of course I’ve misunderstood you,” he said. “There’s a catch somewhere and I haven’t seen it. But for a moment you gave me the impression that you had promised to marry some man on the boat!”
“I did!”
“But...!” Mr. Bennett was doing sums on his fingers. “Do you mean to tell me,” he demanded, having brought out the answer to his satisfaction, “do you mean to tell me that you have been engaged to three men in three weeks?”
“Yes,” said Billie in a small voice.
“Great Godfrey! Er——?”
“No, only three.”
Mr. Bennett sank back on to his pillow with a snort.
“The trouble is,” continued Billie, “one does things and doesn’t know how one is going to feel about it afterwards. You can do an awful lot of thinking afterwards, father.”