“I did hope,” Veneering goes on, “to have had Lady Tippins to meet you; but she is always in request, and is unfortunately engaged.”

(“Oh!” thinks Twemlow, with his eyes wandering, “then there are three of us, and she’s the other.”)

“Mortimer Lightwood,” resumes Veneering, “whom you both know, is out of town; but he writes, in his whimsical manner, that as we ask him to be bridegroom’s best man when the ceremony takes place, he will not refuse, though he doesn’t see what he has to do with it.”

(“Oh!” thinks Twemlow, with his eyes rolling, “then there are four of us, and he’s the other.”)

“Boots and Brewer,” observes Veneering, “whom you also know, I have not asked today; but I reserve them for the occasion.”