Lalage, with mischief in her dark eyes, swooped down upon the trio. The unhappy Peckover's arms being fast held, the only way that occurred to him of avoiding the coming assault was to endeavour to sit down on the floor, in which he succeeded, after a short and spirited attempt on the part of his captors to defeat the manoeuvre.
"I have a prior and a stronger claim on Mr. Gage," said Lalage with calm determination; "and I mean to enforce it, eh, Carnaby?"
"Just let me get out of this rotten armour," growled her brother, thus appealed to. "I'll——"
"But it's not my fault," urged Peckover plaintively, from his undignified position on the floor.
His weakness was not, however, shared by the ladies who, having him fast in their grips, knelt, under the exigences of the situation, beside him.
"He is engaged to me," Ethel maintained stoutly.
"You are engaged to Sharnbrook," objected Dagmar.
"I am not," she denied loudly and with decision.
"All right! That's settled," exclaimed a blithe voice from the gloom, from which next moment the said John Arbuthnot Sharnbrook emerged.