"You have compromised me most horribly at the hotel," she said reproachfully.
With great deliberation Beresford rose and walking over to where the black cat was striving to return to the primitive bird-stalking ways of its progenitors, sent it clambering up the ivy and over the wall by the simple process of making a wild dive towards it. With equal deliberation he returned to his seat and, catching Lola's puzzled gaze, smiled.
"Why did you do that?" she enquired.
"I resent all rivals to your attention, be they the Thirty-Nine Articles or one solitary black cat," he replied, offering her a cigarette.
She shook her head, and he proceeded to light one himself.
"You are absurd," she laughed a little self-consciously.
"If your finances were reduced to the equivalent of about two weeks of ease and pleasure," he replied, "you, too, would be inclined to husband your resources."
"Am I a resource?" she flashed, then seeing him smile and, realising the implication, she began to search nervously in her bag.
"It's there," he said, pointing to an absurd dab of cambric that lay on the table beside her.
She looked up and, meeting his eyes, laughed.
"I think it will be better not," she said, toying with her handkerchief.
"To be a resource?" he queried.
