Marjolaine heard him. "Hush!" she whispered, warningly. "Why?" asked Jack. She peeped round the edge of the Gazebo. "The Reverend Doctor Sternroyd coming out of his gate!" "A parson?" Jack almost shouted. "Yes." "By George!" exclaimed Jack; and while she was gasping, "What are you going to do?" he had rushed across the lawn and slapped the Doctor on the back. "Dear me!" cried the startled Doctor, as his books slid from under his arm and the umbrella opened with a report like a gun’s. "Dear me! Tut, tut!" "I beg your pardon, Doctor," Jack apologised, picking up the books and helping the parson through the gate. Then he seized him by the sleeve and dragged him bewildered and protesting to the Gazebo. [Illustration: HE SEIZED HIM BY THE SLEEVE, AND DRAGGED HIM, BEWILDERED AND PROTESTING, TO THE GAZEBO] "Sempronius! Sempronius!" cried Mrs. Poskett, appearing at her window. "Come in, you bad cat, you ’ll get wet through!" But Sempronius was deeply engrossed, and Mrs. Poskett closed her window in despair. Meanwhile Jack had forced the outraged Doctor down on to the seat, Marjolaine had relieved him of the umbrella, and Jack had tossed his books into a corner. "Sit down, Doctor," said Jack, "here, between us." "But, my dear young friends—" began the Doctor, protestingly. "You’d get your feet wet, Sir, and catch cold. My name’s Jack Sayle." Marjolaine interrupted him. "His name is the Honourable John Sayle," she explained with great importance, "and he’s the only son of Lord Otford." She had touched a spring. If there was one thing the Doctor was more familiar with than another, it was heraldry. He started off like an alarm clock, and all the exclamations and gesticulations of the impatient lovers were incapable of stopping him. [Illustration: HE STARTED OFF LIKE AN ALARM CLOCK] "Otford: or, on a fesse azure between in chief, a sinister arm embowed and couped at the shoulder fessewise vested of the second, holding in the hand proper a martel gules, and in base a cerf regardant passant vert, three martlets of the first. Crest: out of a crest-coronet a blasted oak—" "Oh!" cried Marjory, stopping her ears. "—motto: Sayle and Return." "Doctor!" shouted Jack, shaking him, "when you ’ve quite done, we want to get married; and you ’ve got to get a licence!" The boy and girl were leaning excitedly across him. They spoke alternately and breathlessly. "Because," said Marjolaine, "we ’re in a dreadful hurry and Maman won’t hear of it—" "And my father wants me to marry Caroline Thring, which is wicked—" "And of course I’ll never do it, and it’s no use asking me, but—" "We’re going to be married anyhow, and if you don’t help we shall run away—" "And you would n’t like to be the cause of our doing that, would you?" She had slipped to her knees. "And we love each other—" Jack also was on his knees, facing her. "Very, very dearly!" they both concluded. And to the horror of the learned Doctor, their lips met.