If you had refused to listen, I
intended to take you to the Lido and keep you there all night--the
gondolier and the people there are bribed--then you would have had no
choice but to marry me. Oh, you cannot balk me!"
And all Cecilia Cricklander replied was, with a girlish giggle of
pleasure:
"Oh, Percy, dear!"
In the innermost recesses of their hearts there are a number of cold
women who adore a bold buccaneer!
She had made one stipulation with him before they landed, and this was
one which in the future--little as she knew it then--would rob her of
all her triumph over John Derringham, and plant an everlasting and
bitter sting in her breast.
She insisted that, as she did not wish to create a nine days' wonder, no
mention of his engagement to herself should be made public by Mr.
Hanbury-Green for at least a month after people were aware that she had
closed hers with John Derringham. All should be done with decency and in
order, so as not to militate in any way against her future position as
queen of the winning side.
And, knowing that he had already telegraphed the announcement that the
marriage arranged between the Right Honorable John Derringham and Mrs.
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