I had forgotten that this sort of encounter was possible. I had forgotten Hugh. When I saw his innocent, blank face staring up at us I felt I was confronting my doom.
"Well!" he ejaculated, as though he had caught us in some criminal conspiracy.
As it was for me to explain, I said, limply:
"Mr. Strangways has been good enough to offer to make some money for me, Hugh. Isn't that kind of him?"
Hugh grew slowly crimson. His voice shook with passion. He came up one step.
"Mr. Strangways will be kinder still in minding his own business."
"Oh, Hugh!"
"Don't be offended, Mr. Brokenshire," Larry Strangways said, peaceably. "I merely had the opportunity to advise Miss Adare as to her investments—"
"I shall advise Miss Adare as to her investments. It happens that she's engaged to me!"
"But she's not married to you. An engagement is not a marriage; it's only a preliminary period in which two persons agree to consider whether or not a marriage between them would be possible. Since that's the situation at present, I thought it no harm to tell Miss Adare that if she puts her money into some of the new projects for ammunition that I know about—"