"She won't!"
"If," I persisted.
Loring jumped up excitedly.
"My dear chap, she simply musn't break off the engagement! Leave me out of it, tell her only to consider her own position." He paused in fresh embarrassment. "You remember the trouble over that swine Crabtree?" he went on diffidently. "We can't have a repetition of that! You know as well as I do, a girl who's always breaking off engagements.... Get her to look at it from that point of view!"
I rose up and dusted the ash from my shirt-front.
"She's tired of you," I repeated, with all the brutal directness I could put into my tone.
"Well—and if she is?" The tone no less than the words hinted that he might be beginning to share my opinion.
"You want the engagement renewed on those terms?"
"I don't want the Crabtree business over again?" he answered, fencing with my question.
"I'll call on her to-morrow," I said, "unless you ring me up before ten."