Sir Tancred ground his teeth, and then he laughed.
Tinker made a circuit, and came down to the sea, where he found Elsie
playing with two little English girls staying at Arcachon with their
mother. At once she deserted them for him, and when he had withdrawn
her to a distance, he said, "I've hit on a way of getting them married."
"No! Have you? You are clever!" she cried with the ungrudging
admiration she always accorded him.
"Clever? It only wants a little common-sense," said Tinker with some
disdain.
"I shall be glad."
"So shall I. It'll be a weight off my mind, don't you know?" said
Tinker with a sigh.
"I'm sure it will," said the sympathetic Elsie.
"It must be awfully nice to be in love," she added with conviction.
"Now, look here," said Tinker in a terrible voice, "if I catch you
falling in love, I'll--I'll shake you!"
"But--but, I may be in love--ever so much, for anything you know," said
Elsie somewhat haughtily.
"You are not," said Tinker sternly. "Your appetite is all right.
Don't talk any more nonsense, but come along, we've got to get ready
for the picnic."
At half-past eleven the two children went on board the _Petrel_, a
little steam yacht of a shallow draught adapted to the shoals of the
Gulf, which Septimus Rainer had hired from a member of the Bordeaux
Yacht Club.
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