"Can't you, dear boy? No? Pray, why not?"
"Do you really wish to know?" asked Brooking, hesitating a little.
Sir Percival treated himself daintily to a pinch of snuff and brushed the dust from his coat with an embroidered handkerchief.
"I think you wish to tell me," he answered, smiling. "It amounts to the same thing between friends, doesn't it?"
"I think we may as well understand each other now," said Brooking, in a serious tone.
"I quite agree with you," remarked Sir Percival, inwardly wondering what this introduction would lead to.
"I have been postponing this conversation from day to day for the last week."
"Indeed? And why?"
"It is rather a delicate subject."
"I would prefer one that is indelicate, if it is not inconvenient," suggested Sir Percival.