"In an hour--in _less_ than an hour. As soon as I've told Mums," Marise spoke quickly and thickly, over a beating heart. Each moment excited her more and more. She felt herself the heroine of a thrilling drama--a drama where she had to play the star part without any rehearsals, and without ever having read further than the first scene of the first act. It might be a drama of "stunts," too--as the movie people said: dangerous stunts, where she might have to walk a tightrope with a deep drop underneath. But she wasn't afraid. She would not have thrown over the part now if some other easier one with the same ending had offered. She didn't recognise herself as she was to-day. But she did not care. It was all Tony's fault. Or perhaps a little Mums' fault too.
"And afterwards?" she heard Garth quietly asking.
"Oh!... Well, the first thing is the fun of surprising everyone. After that--well, I haven't exactly thought yet."
"You had better think," he said. "Much better."
Marise glanced at the back of Zélie's head, then met Miss Marks's eyes in the mirror.
"We'll talk it over presently with Mums. She's so _wise_--and always knows how to do the right thing." The "correct thing" would have been more apt an expression, but Marise wasn't thinking of the fine shades. She was thinking just then more of Zélie; and the thought of Zélie made her blush, she didn't quite see why!
"Miss Marks," she said, "I may want you by and by to take down several notes for me, letters to some of my most intimate friends, to be sent after--after the wedding. But at this particular instant I fancy there's nothing more for you to do, except--oh yes, do be very nice, and run down to the mail counter, or wherever in the hotel you can buy stamps."
As these instructions were being given, Zélie pencilled with incredible quickness a few words on a scrap of paper. This scrap she tucked up her sleeve, and a second or two later, as Garth opened the door for her to go out, she contrived to slip the paper into the hand on the knob.
"Now I'll call Mums," cried Marise, fearing to risk such a moment alone with this unclassified wild animal, soon to become her dummy husband. "Mums is not pleased, because I said I wanted a few words with you before she came in--though she'd be _much_ crosser if she knew I'd let Miss Marks stay. You'll back me up with her, won't you, that my plan--_ours_, I mean--is the best?"