"Well! Come! That's a good 'un!" Reggie was surprised, his brother saw, but not so satisfactorily taken aback as he had hoped.
"Then, what did the man mean by daring to say it to me?"
Reggie maintained an instant's quite undisconcerted silence; then, "You see, she says it too," he said.
"Day's daughter? She must be stopped saying it."
"Oh, I don't know. Girls do say that sort of thing."
"I think not. Unless they are privileged to say it. Miss Day, you say, has nothing to go upon?"
"Oh, well, you know!" Reggie sat back from the table, putting his hands in his pockets, leaning in his chair at his ease, with the air of talking as one man of the world to another.
"But I do not know. I am waiting for you to tell me."
"You don't want me to go into detail, I suppose?"
"You mean you have indulged in a flirtation with this girl, and she has tried to grab you?"
Reggie gave the subject a moment's thought. "I won't quite admit that," he said conscientiously. "She, somehow, seems to think I've gone further than I have gone. She said something to me last night about my speaking to her father."
"Instead of which her father is sent to speak to me. Now, look here, Reggie, you and I have never, so far, had any unpleasantness--have we? Do not let us have it over this. A daughter of William Day's is about the last person on earth it would be desirable for you to marry."
"I'm not thinking of marrying any one yet, Francis."
"I should hope not! Were you going to meet Miss Day on the ice?"
"Well, she said she'd be there. A whole lot of them were going."
"Thank you. I don't want our name"--he was as proud of the brewery as if it had been a dukedom; he said "our name" as though he spoke of a sacred thing--"mixed up with the name of Mr. William Day."
"He's a nice, good-natured old fellow. You should have heard him banging away with his tambourine, last night."
"I'm going to tell you something in confidence. On the strength of your engagement to his daughter--wait! I know you are not engaged to her--Mr. William Day came here to borrow five hundred pounds of me."
"I refused him the loan, of course. Wait a minute! What I was going to say is this: I happen to know why he wanted that money. Why it was important for him to get it at once. It was to pacify a certain client of his who is pressing him. She authorised him to sell some shares, which he did; but she can't get a settlement."