And I throw an old shoe after you for luck, and go home
again."
Launce shook his head ominously.
"Natalie must go home again as well as you!"
Lady Winwood started. "Is that the condition you mentioned just now?"
she asked.
"That is the condition. I may marry her without anything serious coming
of it. But, if I run away with her afterward, and if you are there,
aiding and abetting me, we are guilty of Abduction, and we may stand,
side by side, at the bar of the Old Bailey to answer for it!"
Natalie sprang to her feet in horror. Lady Winwood held up one finger
warningly, signing to her to let Launce go on.
"Natalie is not yet sixteen years old," Launce proceeded. "She must go
straight back to her father's house from the church, and I must wait
to run away with her till her next birthday. When she's turned sixteen,
she's ripe for elopement--not an hour before. There is the law of
Abduction! Despotism in a free country--that's what I call it!"
Natalie sat down again, with an air of relief.
"It's a very comforting law, I think," she said.
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