"Well, you had better hold Gwendoline's hand as engagingly as you can," he said. "It will probably be your last chance, as far as I'm concerned."
Reggie looked at him with a faint wrinkle in his forehead.
"Is it a riddle, Tony?" he asked plaintively. "I am no good at riddles unless I'm slightly drunk."
"The answer," said Tony, selecting a shirt with some care, "is Little Eva. It's very painful, but the fact remains that if Little Eva doesn't win to-day there's an end of Antony Delmar."
Reggie paused in the act of lighting a cigarette.
"You're not thinking of poisoning yourself, are you, Tony?" he asked, with interest. "Because, if so, a doctor chap once told me——"
Tony laughed.
"You're always very helpful, Reggie," he said; "but, as a matter of fact, I've not the least idea of doing anything so exciting. I only mean that unless Little Eva brings it off we've finished this particular chapter. I've no doubt Ropes will lend me a tenner, but, bar that, I shall be what Pat O'Donnell used to call 'bruk to the buff.'"
For the first time Reggie looked a little serious.
"Are things really as bad as that?" he asked.