It'll want a wipe round. Better use the table-cloth."
There was silence in the study until tea was ready. Then Jimmy Silver
spoke.
"Long time since we three had tea together," he said, addressing the
remark to the teapot.
"Kennedy's a busy man," said Fenn, suavely. "He's got a house to look
after."
"And I'm going to look after it," said Kennedy, "as you'll find."
Jimmy Silver put in a plaintive protest.
"I wish you two men wouldn't talk shop," he said. "It's bad enough
having Kay's next door to one, without your dragging it into the
conversation. How were the forwards this evening, Kennedy?"
"Not bad," said Kennedy, shortly.
"I wonder if we shall lick Tuppenham on Saturday?"
"I don't know," said Kennedy; and there was silence again.
"Look here, Jimmy," said Kennedy, after a long pause, during which the
head of Blackburn's tried to fill up the blank in the conversation by
toasting a piece of bread in a way which was intended to suggest that
if he were not so busy, the talk would be unchecked and animated,
"it's no good. We must have it out some time, so it may as well be
here as anywhere else. I've been looking for Fenn all day."
"Sorry to give you all that trouble," said Fenn, with a sneer. "Got
something important to say?"
"Yes."
"Go ahead, then."
Jimmy Silver stood between them with the toasting-fork in his hand, as
if he meant to plunge it into the one who first showed symptoms of
flying at the other's throat.
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