“All right, then. Perhaps I don’t.”
“Then what,” I said keenly, “did you want to go and get engaged to him
for, you unreasonable young fathead?”
“I thought it would be fun.”
“Fun!”
“And so it has been. I’ve had a lot of fun out of it. You should have
seen Tuppy’s face when I told him.”
A sudden bright light shone upon me.
“Ha! A gesture!”
“What?”
“You got engaged to Gussie just to score off Tuppy?”
“I did.”
“Well, then, that was what I was saying. It was a gesture.”
“Yes, I suppose you could call it that.”
“And I’ll tell you something else I’ll call it--viz. a dashed low
trick. I’m surprised at you, young Angela.”
“I don’t see why.”
I curled the lip about half an inch. “Being a female, you wouldn’t. You
gentler sexes are like that. You pull off the rawest stuff without a
pang. You pride yourselves on it. Look at Jael, the wife of Heber.”
“Where did you ever hear of Jael, the wife of Heber?”
“Possibly you are not aware that I once won a Scripture-knowledge prize
at school?”
“Oh, yes. I remember Augustus mentioning it in his speech.”
“Quite,” I said, a little hurriedly. I had no wish to be reminded of
Augustus’s speech. “Well, as I say, look at Jael, the wife of Heber.
Dug spikes into the guest’s coconut while he was asleep, and then went
swanking about the place like a Girl Guide. No wonder they say, ‘Oh,
woman, woman!’”
“Who?”
“The chaps who do. Coo, what a sex! But you aren’t proposing to keep
this up, of course?”
“Keep what up?”
“This rot of being engaged to Gussie.”
“I certainly am.”
“Just to make Tuppy look silly.”
“Do you think he looks silly?”
“I do.”
“So he ought to.”
I began to get the idea that I wasn’t making real headway. I remember
when I won that Scripture-knowledge prize, having to go into the facts
about Balaam’s ass. I can’t quite recall what they were, but I still
retain a sort of general impression of something digging its feet in
and putting its ears back and refusing to co-operate; and it seemed to
me that this was what Angela was doing now. She and Balaam’s ass were,
so to speak, sisters under the skin. There’s a word beginning with
r----“re” something----“recal” something--No, it’s gone. But what I am
driving at is that is what this Angela was showing herself.
“Silly young geezer,” I said.
She pinkened.
“I’m not a silly young geezer.”
“You are a silly young geezer. And, what’s more, you know it.”
“I don’t know anything of the kind.”
“Here you are, wrecking Tuppy’s life, wrecking Gussie’s life, all for
the sake of a cheap score.”
“Well, it’s no business of yours.”