“Cold what? I never _heard_ of such a thing: It’s enough to kill you.”
Mrs Montgomery took a deep-drawn breath of languor.
“And would you care, doctor, so _very_ much if it did?” she asked, as a page made his appearance with an ice-bucket and champagne.
“Oh, oh, Dr Cuncliffe? What a wicked man you are:” And for a solemn moment their thoughts went out in unison to the sea-girt land of their birth--Barkers’, Selfridges’, Brighton-pier, the Zoological gardens on a Sunday afternoon.
“Here’s to the good old country!” the doctor quaffed.
“The Bride, and,” Mrs Montgomery raised her glass, “the Old Folks at h-home.”
“The Old Folks at home!” he vaguely echoed.
“Bollinger, you naughty man,” the lady murmured, amiably seating herself on the causeuse at his side.
“You’ll find it dull here all alone after the Court has gone,” he observed, smiling down, a little despotically, on to her bright, abundant hair.
“When the wind goes whistling up and down under the colonnades: oh, then!” she shivered.
“You’ll wish for a fine, bold Pisuergian husband; shan’t you?” he answered, his foot drawing closer to hers.
“Often of an evening, I feel I need fostering,” she owned, glancing up yearningly into his face.
“Fostering, eh?” he chuckled, refilling with exuberance her glass.
“Why is it that wine always makes me feel _so good_?”
“Probably, because it fills you with affection for your neighbour!”
“It’s true; I feel I could be very affectionate: I’m what they call an ‘amoureuse’ I suppose, and there it is....”
“It’s almost too warm for a fire,” she murmured, repairing towards the window; “but I like to hear the crackle!”
“Company, eh?” he returned, following her (a trifle unsteadily) across the room.
“The night is so clear the moon looks to be almost transparent,” she languorously observed, with a long tugging sigh.
“I adore the Pigeons in my wee court towards night, when they sink down like living sapphires upon the stones,” she sentimentally said, sighing languorously again.
“Ours,” he assured her; “since the surgery looks on to it, too....”
“Did you ever see anything so ducky-wucky, so completely twee!” she inconsequently chirruped.
“I want to go out on all that gold floating water!” she murmured listlessly, pointing towards the lake.