He sat there panting for close on five minutes, with unaccustomed perspiration streaming down his red face, and then he said "Demn!" and proceeded to mop himself up with his handkerchief. Then he held up a finger to a distant waiter in the dining-room, and when he came, murmured, "Whisky--soda--two," and fanned himself vigorously till they came. "Better?" asked Graeme, as they nodded and drank. "Heap better! What a demnable place to get into!" "There are one or two other entrances--" "Better?" "No, worse." "Demn!" "Now," he said presently, when his heart had got back to normal and he had lit a cigarette. "Let's talk business. Am I in time?" "For the wedding? Just in time. It's tomorrow." "Aw--er--you know what I've come for, I suppose?" "I can imagine, but you may as well save yourself useless trouble. You can't do anything." "Think not?" "Sure. English--I should say, British--law doesn't run here, and you've no _locus standi_ if it did." "She's under age and her guardian objects. I represent him." "He can object all he wants to, and you can represent him all you want to. It won't make the slightest difference." "I can appear at the ceremony and show cause why it should not proceed." "What cause?" "Her guardian objects. The parson would hardly proceed in face of my objection." "I think you'll find he would. However, we'll go and ask him presently. We'll pay a visit to the Seigneur also." "Who's the Seigneur?" "Lord Paramount of the island. His word goes. If he chooses, as he probably will, to tell you to go also, you'll have to go." "Demn'd if I will!" "He'll see to that. He'll put the Senechal and the Greffier and the Prevot and the two constables and the Vingtenier on to you, and bundle you out like a sack of potatoes." "Oh, come, Graeme! This is the twentieth century!" "That's another of your little mistakes, my friend. I can't tell you just exactly what year it is here, but it's somewhere between 1066 and, say, 1200 A.D." "Afraid I don't quite catch on." "Exactly! That's why you'll be off in this scene. We're under feudal law here, with a mixture of Home Rule. We don't care twopence for your English courts, and as for English lawyers, they're not much liked here, I believe." "Rum hole!" mused Charles Svendt. "Rum hole to make yourself a nuisance in. Jolly place to be happy in." "H'm!" And presently he asked, "Where are you stopping?" "I'll go along and tell the girls you're here--" "Girls?" "Miss Penny came with Margaret--" "Aw--Miss Penny!" "You'd better have your lunch here. They'll give you lobsters fresh from the kettle, and I'll stroll round later on and we'll get this matter settled up. So long!" and he went away up the Avenue and across the fields home. And he went thoughtfully. It was annoying this man cropping up like this at the eleventh hour. Nothing, he felt sure, would come of his interference, but it might disturb Margaret and the general harmony of to-morrow's proceedings.