“Oh, thank you, Miss Audrey. I’m going strong, thank you. I hope you are, too.”
Without another word, he resumed his squabble with his friend.
The two girls looked at each other. Then Doris spoke.
“Good afternoon, Mr Purchase. I hope that you have been pleasantly engaged, and have not missed me.”
Mr Purchase’s answer must have been distinctly unexpected. He just nodded, as Basil Carter had done, and observed, in the most offhanded manner:
“Not at all, Miss Doris—not in the very least. We couldn’t have been better employed, thank you very much.”
He returned to Mr Carter, placing the forefinger of his right hand on the palm of his left.
“The point is this, I have now ceded to you my share of the box, leaving you perfect freedom to carry out your original plan, as of course you will do.”
“Nothing of the kind. That’s not the point, here is the point in a nutshell.”
At it they went, in the old delightful way. The two girls had seated themselves on a settee which was between the windows. They looked sweet, but a remark which Doris made to me suggested that that was not exactly how they were feeling.