“Do you seriously mean to stand there and tell me you don't loathe the creature?”
“Oh, he's all right. See his point of view and all that. Can't blame him, if you come to think of it, for getting the wind up a bit in the circs. Bit thick, I mean to say, a sparring-partner going at him like that. Naturally he didn't think it much of a wheeze. It was my fault right along. Oughtn't to have done it, of course, but somehow, when he started making an ass of me and I knew you were looking on... well, it seemed a good idea to have a dash at doing something on my own. No right to, of course. A sparring-partner isn't supposed...”
“Ginger,” said Sally, “you're too good to live.”
“I believe if someone sandbagged you and stole your watch and chain you'd say there were faults on both sides or something. I'm just a cat, and I say I wish your beast of a Bugs Butler had perished miserably. I'd have gone and danced on his grave... But whatever made you go in for that sort of thing?”
“Well, it seemed the only job that was going at the moment. I've always done a goodish bit of boxing and I was very fit and so on, and it looked to me rather an opening. Gave me something to get along with. You get paid quite fairly decently, you know, and it's rather a jolly life...”
“Oh, you don't notice it much. I've always enjoyed scrapping rather. And, you see, when your brother gave me the push...”
“What an extraordinary thing it is--I went all the way out to White Plains that afternoon to find Fillmore and tackle him about that and I didn't say a word about it. And I haven't seen or been able to get hold of him since.”
“Let me go? Oh, you mean... well, there was a sort of mix-up. A kind of misunderstanding.”
Ginger's disfigured countenance betrayed embarrassment. He looked awkwardly about the room.
“It is worth talking about. I've a right to know. It was I who sent you to Fillmore...”
“Now that,” said Ginger, “was jolly decent of you.”
“Don't interrupt! I sent you to Fillmore, and he had no business to let you go without saying a word to me. What happened?”
“Well, it was rather unfortunate. You see, his wife--I don't know if you know her?...”
“Why, yes, you would, wouldn't you? Your brother's wife, I mean,” said Ginger acutely. “Though, as a matter of fact, you often find sisters-in-law who won't have anything to do with one another. I know a fellow...”