"You seem to be very good at invention yourself. I shall ask nothing of the kind."
"But you would like to know and I will tell you. It was invented to delay a possible announcement. It could have had no other object."
"I said nothing of any announcement," Verelst angrily protested. "What announcement are you talking about?"
"The heading of the filly for the sweepstakes. The expression—very graphic by the way—is your own."
"Graphic or not I wish you would drop it. Besides——"
"Besides what?"
"Why, confound it, admitting the engagement, which I ought not to admit for it is not out yet, why should he play for delay?"
"Ha!" exclaimed Jones, whom the spectacle of Paliser and Cassy sailing up the Riverside had supplied with an impression or two. "I thought I would interest you. He played for delay because he feared that if it were known, a pitcher of ice-water might come dashing over it."
"Why do you say that?" asked Verelst, eager and anxious enough for a spoke—if spoke there could be—to shove in a certain lady's wheels.
"Given the man and the deduction is easy."