"Then you feel I ought to accept mother's arrangements?"
"You must, if it will make her happy."
"She assured me she would be most miserable if I didn't."
"Then it's settled," I said.
"That's not all, Elizabeth; the duke is sailing for Japan on the twenty-sixth of February."
"And this is the twentieth!" I gasped.
"Yes, sweetheart. And mother has arranged our wedding for the twenty-fourth."
I was silent from sheer indignation.
"I told mother you wouldn't like it. But will you.....? Do you.....? Would you mind very much being married on the twenty-fourth?"
"Would you mind?" I asked.