“Oh, Jinny!” groaned Mr. Flippance: “To desert your old pal!”
“And do you, Mr. Duke,” went on Jinny imperturbably, “maintain that your marionettes are a better property than the Flippance Fit-Up?”
“Certainly not,” said Mr. Duke, not to be caught.
“The marionettes are a worse property then?” she asked.
Duke banged his book. “Much worse.”
“Then why do you want it back?”
Tony uttered a shriek of delight. “A Daniel come to judgment! Oh, Jinny, I could hug you!”
A sweep of her horn kept him at arm’s length. “You say, Mr. Duke, that the Fit-Up property is the better, and yet you want to give it up?”
Mr. Duke leaned his elbows on the desk, and dropped his head in his hands. “You confuse me—I must have time to think.”
“Hamlet!” observed Tony pleasantly. “But I don’t think the ghost will walk.” His hand moved towards the gin decanter, but again that baffling horn intervened.