‘But,’ objected Amy, ‘how am I to make matters turn out properly?’
‘Listen!’ said Lucy. ‘Aunt proposes to personate you. Very well. Put off the time of your elopement, say, for half an hour; and meantime Mr Jellicoe must find some one to personate him. My idea is for aunt to elope with the billiard-marker, and so give you time to get away. Do you see?’
Amy could not at first grasp the significance of this bold proposition; but when she succeeded in doing so, she was delighted with it.
‘I shall tell Mr Rhodes,’ said Lucy, when she had sufficiently explained the plan; ‘for I know that he will gladly help you; and Mr Jellicoe can talk it all over with him and have the benefit of his advice.’
‘But what will aunt say when she discovers how we—how you—have deceived her?’ asked Amy.
‘Ah!’ said Lucy slily, ‘I must talk about that too with Mr Rhodes. But never fear!’ And she went off to rejoin Miss Marrable, who was still much flurried.
Later in the day, Lucy met Robert on the beach, and told him what had happened. ‘And now,’ she said in conclusion, ‘I am going to make a dreadful proposition to you. We must also elope together!’
‘I am sure I don’t mind,’ said Mr Rhodes. ‘After hearing your news, I was going to propose as much myself. It would take you out of the reach of your aunt’s reproaches, when she finds out the trick that has been played upon her.’
‘You are a dear old love!’ cried Lucy with enthusiasm. ‘I wouldn’t for the world have Amy made unhappy; and I feel that I must help her, although I don’t approve of elopements. Now go and talk to Mr Jellicoe; and don’t forget to have the licenses ready. Perhaps Mr Jellicoe can arrange for both Amy and me to sleep that night with the Joneses, whoever they may be; or perhaps, after all, we had better not go there, since aunt knows of that part of the scheme.’
‘I daresay,’ said Robert, ‘that I can arrange for both of you to sleep at the Browns at Llanyltid. They have a large house, and, curiously enough, my sister Dora, whom you have often met in town, is staying there with them; so you will have a companion and sympathiser. And now I will go and talk to Jellicoe.’