“You must like George very much.”
“I wouldn’t be seen dead with him.”
“Then where,” said Hubert, “is the snag?”
Julia hesitated.
“I—I said ‘officially cancelled.’ You know. Put in The Times. But I never meant it to be done. I—I thought we could just tell people.”
“Oh, what a dirty one,” said Hubert.
“It wasn’t at all,” said Julia indignantly. “Besides, he asked for it. He tried to do me down. . . . And then—then I got your letter.”
“Ah,” said Hubert. “That shortened George’s price.”
“It was two to one on him,” cried Julia. “You’d disappeared: he’d only to find the ring—and that he did, my dear, quite early this morning.” She held up a delicate finger, at once adorning and adorned by a magnificent gem. “A messenger-boy——”
Challenger looked down his nose.