“Did she tell you that?”
“I should like to hear if that is so.”
Gaymer emptied half the tumbler and set it down behind him on the mantelpiece.
“Would you?,” he asked with a smile. “I rather feel that’s my business.”
“Not entirely. She’s a friend of mine... You and she were being discussed at lunch to-day.”
“Where?”
“At the Thespian. Are you engaged to her?,” Eric persisted.
In the short pause which followed both men seemed to resolve no longer to waste time on appearances and the circumlocution of civility.
“What the devil’s that to you?,” Gaymer demanded.
“Are you going to marry her?,” asked Eric.