"You remember perhaps that letter that I gave you from May?"
Dick laid his pen down suddenly, and sat up, but he did not turn.
"Well?" he said again.
"And the other letters before it?"
"Well?"
"It has occurred to me that perhaps I ought to ask for them,—demand them, don't you know, the way they do on the stage."
Dick said nothing. By keeping his back to his chum he missed sight of a face full of fun and mischief.
"Of course I don't want to seem too bumptious, but now I'm engaged to Miss Calthorpe—"
He paused as if to give Fairfield an opportunity of speaking; but still Dick remained silent.
"Well," observed Jack after a moment, "why the dickens don't you say something? I can't be expected to carry on this conversation all alone."