“Oh, bother the bet,” says this unscrupulous person.

“But what do you mean?” says Charlie.

“Why,” I say to him, “she laid a wager last Christmas Day that you would not be married within a year.  And now you say you mean to bring Franziska over on the 4th of December next.  Isn’t it so?”

“Oh, no!” he says; “we don’t get married till the spring.”

You should have heard the burst of low, delightful laughter with which Queen Tita welcomed this announcement.  She had won her wager.