"Miss Bayley, I do entreat you not to go. You do not understand me in the least. I do not say I am engaged; quite--quite the other way."
"Oh, Mr Macleod!"
The affair might have its comic side for a looker-on, but it was tragic enough for her. If she did not get this man, whom could she get? At Swaffham-on-Sea eligible bachelors were as rare as snow in summer. Besides--women attach themselves to poodle dogs!--she really liked the man.
The curate continued:
"The--the circumstances really are, I think, the most extraordinary I ever heard of. I should be almost induced to believe that it had all happened in a dream were it not for a letter that I have in my pocket."
"From whom is the letter?"
"From--from Miss Vesey."
"Is that the lady you are engaged to?"
"En--engaged to? I hadn't made her acquaintance ten minutes before she said I had proposed to her."
"She would not have said so unless you had."