Sharnbrook took the hint at once. "Don't speak to me, Mr. Gage," he cried resentfully.
"You've not lost any time," Dagmar sarcastically remarked to her sister.
"No, dear," Ethel replied with feline sweetness.
"He belongs to that appalling woman from Australia," said Dagmar confidently. "She'll hold him. Don't you wish you may get him."
"I've got him," Ethel declared.
"She's ready to break it off," whispered Peckover to Sharnbrook. "Don't be too eager. Pretend to be broken-hearted."
The other nodded. "Mr. Gage," he said, with a fine show of dignified feeling, "I find I am mistaken in you."
"That you are," Peckover muttered aside through the corner of his mouth.
"How do you do the broken-hearted?" Sharnbrook enquired in a whisper, seeing the ladies were occupied in reciprocating sarcasms.
"Don't make too much noise," Peckover instructed him, in the same tone. "Think you are feeling sick; that it's your wedding-day with Ethel. Fancy you've missed a pheasant and shot your best dog."