'Oh, Freddie!'
'A wedding present,' repeated Frederick, though the words stuck in his throat like patent American health-cereal.
'But I'm not going to be married.'
'You're—what did you say?'
'I'm not going to be married.'
'But what of Dillingwater?'
'That's off.'
'Off?'
'Off,' said Jane firmly. 'I only got engaged to him out of pique. I thought I could go through with it, buoying myself up by thinking what a score it would be off you, but one morning I saw him eating a peach and I began to waver. He splashed himself to the eyebrows. And just after that I found that he had a trick of making a sort of funny noise when he drank coffee. I would sit on the other side of the breakfast table, looking at him and saying to myself "Now comes the funny noise!" and when I thought of doing that all the rest of my life I saw that the scheme was impossible. So I broke off the engagement.'
Frederick gasped.