“Next week. Where are you going to stay?”
“In college, if I can get hold of a room.”
“Bother Oxford,” interrupted Stella. “We want to know where you’ve been this fortnight.”
“You do,” Alan corrected.
“I’ll tell you both later on,” Michael volunteered. “Just at present I suppose you won’t grudge me a secret. People who are engaged to be married should show a very special altruism toward people who are not.”
“Michael, I will not have you being important and carrying about a secret with you,” Stella declared.
“You can manage either me or Alan,” Michael offered. “But you simply shall not manage both of us. Personally, I recommend you to break-in Alan.”
With evasive banter he succeeded in postponing the revelation of what he was, as Stella said, up to.
“We’re going in for Herefords,” Alan suddenly announced without consideration for the trend of the talk. “You know. Those white-faced chaps.”
Michael looked at him in astonishment.