"George wasn't that a perfectly innocent remark? The Panther's simply amazing, the things he does. However, I seemed to have said the wrong thing. He clapped his hands to his eyes as though he'd been stung, and I could hear him whisper under his breath, 'Oh, my God!'
"I weighed in with the most abject of apologies, and he was all right again in a minute and turned to Miss Dainton.
"'Am I to take this young man as representative of the world at large, Sonia?' he asked.
"She said 'Yes' very quietly.
"'Oakleigh hasn't shown you round the rooms yet,' he said. 'They're nothing very much. I left my money behind in London, and a slice of my youth the far side of the Atlantic, and my sight in Flanders. If you care about what's left Sonia.... I'm not half-way through my life yet.'
"She got up and whispered something that I couldn't hear, then the Panther turned to me and held out his hand. 'Will you be the first to congratulate me, Oakleigh? I shall want you to write a lot of letters to-night. One to George, and another to your sister, and any number more. You can tell George to desert from the Admiralty and come down here for Speech Day—and as long as he can stay afterwards. You can tell the school, too, if you think it'll amuse them.'
"I shook hands with the two of them for about five minutes. They were simply bursting with cheer. I wanted to shout or make a speech or something, but all I could do was to pump-handle their arms up and down and burble 'Best of luck!' and on my honour I slapped the Panther on the back and told him to buck up!
"Never in my life did I feel such a fool as when it was all over. I got away as soon as I could and wandered down to the baths. About an hour later as I was coming up to prep. with Majoribanks we caught sight of the Panther and Miss Dainton starting up the Crowley Road. I mentioned casually that the Panther was getting married and that I'd been having tea with them and that she struck me as being a decent sort of girl. I didn't go into details. It was all such an extraordinary business that I knew that if I didn't quite get the hang of it, it was useless to look to a chuckle-head like Margy for light and leading.
"You know, George, I don't believe they'd have done it if it hadn't been for me.