"His legs are shapely," added Cecile, sentimentally.
Dorothy gave a despairing upward glance at me. "Are these children not
silly?" she said, with a little shrug.
"We may be children, and we may be silly," said Ruyven, "but if we were
you we'd wed our cousin Ormond."
"All of you together?" inquired Dorothy.
"You know what I mean," he snapped.
"Why don't you?" demanded Harry, vaguely, twitching Dorothy by the
apron.
"Do what?"
"Wed our cousin Ormond."
"But he has not asked me," she said, smiling.
Harry turned to me and took my arm affectionately in his.
"You will ask her, won't you?" he murmured. "She's very nice when she
chooses."
"She wouldn't have me," I said, laughing.
"Oh yes, she would; and then you need never leave us, which would be
pleasant for all, I think. Won't you ask her, cousin?"
"You ask her," I said.
"Dorothy," he broke out, eagerly. "You will wed him, won't you? Our
cousin Ormond says he will if you will. And I'll tell Sir George that
it's just a family matter, and, besides, he's too old--"
"Yes, tell Sir George that," sneered Ruyven, who had listened in an
embarrassment that certainly Dorothy had not betrayed. "You're a great
fool, Harry. Don't you know that when people want to wed they ask each
other's permission to ask each other's father, and then their fathers
ask each other, and then they ask each--"
"Other!" cried Dorothy, laughing deliciously.
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