Mr Purchase burst out almost before Mr Carter had finished.
“Basil, how can you say such things? Really, you are beyond anything. You are perfectly well aware that the original invitation to Miss Norah came from me. Now, is that not the fact? Yes or no? Answer me.”
“Don’t be silly, Jack; I invited Miss Norah.”
“After I had done so.”
“Pooh! a question of a moment’s superior glibness.”
Audrey stood up.
“Is this a little comedy which has been arranged between you two.”
“That, Miss Audrey, is precisely the question I have put to Jack. I certainly have had no hand in it.”
“But it seems to me you have. You will excuse my putting it to you bluntly, Mr Carter; but did I not understand you to say that if you succeeded in getting a box for the Gaiety you would offer me a seat in it?”
Basil Carter seeming momentarily tongue-tied, his friend answered for him.