‘Absolutely.’
‘And how long would you have hung on past despair point?’ he asked with a twinkle.
‘Probably half an hour.... What have you done with your lady-love?’
‘Ordered her to bed.’
‘So early? All for my benefit? I scent an ulterior motive.’
He laughed and pulled her hair. ‘Your instinct’s infallible! It’s this marrying business. I know I promised to wait; but the whole face of the world has changed since then.’
He detected the faint compression of her lips.
‘Mums, you’re incorrigible. She’s a delicious thing.’
‘Who says otherwise?’
‘You do—internally! Not a mite of use throwing dust in my eyes. When you’re converted I shall know it, to the tick of a minute. Meantime’—he moved over to the window and stood there facing her—‘the question is, in a war like this, oughtn’t one to marry, if possible, before going out? She got on to war weddings this evening, and I was tongue-tied. That mustn’t happen again. What’s your notion? D’you still think—wait?’