I let my head drop, as a man might who discovers he has said too much. "Oh, nothing," I replied.
Archie was just as sharp as—neither more nor less than—I wished him to be.
"A lot of fuss about nothing—if it's really nothing," he said suspiciously.
The next moment he had looked hard into my face, taken a long breath, and, suddenly bringing his hand down on his thigh, broken into loud laughter.
"By Jove! Jeff—I really believe—let's have a look at you—by Jove! I really do—I believe you're in love! What a——How ripping, I mean! Best congratulations, old chap—my turn this time—ha ha ha ha!"
I drew myself heavily up. The kind of thing I was doing has to be done rather carefully. "Look here, Archie—" I began, trembling between the wrath I felt and the not-too-much wrath I must appear to display; but he interrupted me:
"Well, that's a knock-out! Who'd have dreamed——"
"Why not?" I demanded sharply.
"Oh, I didn't mean that!" he made such haste to say that it was plain as a pikestaff that he had meant precisely "that."
"I only meant, how surprising—how unexpected. I mean——"