"Your engagement ring, wasn't it?" he said.
"Are you by any chance serious?"
"Perfectly." Roger's schoolboy awkwardness, due to his encounter with an unexpectedly facetious jeweller, was wearing off.
"My engagement ring?"
"We'll change it, of course," he said, with maddening politeness, "if you really prefer pearls."
"Presupposing an engagement?" Alwynne was on her high horse.
"To me. That was the idea, I think. Elsbeth is delighted."
Alwynne dismounted hastily again, though she kept a hand on the bridle.
"Roger—this is beyond a joke. What have you been saying to Elsbeth?"
"Why, my dear," he said gently, "very much what I told you yesterday afternoon."