“Yes?” said Archie.  He took the bracelet and twiddled it thoughtfully.  “Well, my dear old jeweller, one can’t say fairer than that, can one—­or two, as the case may be!” He frowned.  “Oh, well, all right!  But it’s rummy that women are so fearfully keen on these little thingummies, isn’t it?  I mean to say, can’t see what they see in them.  Stones, and all that.  Still, there, it is, of course!”

“There,” said the jeweller, “as you say, it is, sir.”

“Yes, there it is!”

“Yes, there it is,” said the jeweller, “fortunately for people in my line of business.  Will you take it with you, sir?”

Archie reflected.

“No.  No, not take it with me.  The fact is, you know, my wife’s coming back from the country to-night, and it’s her birthday to-morrow, and the thing’s for her, and, if it was popping about the place to-night, she might see it, and it would sort of spoil the surprise.  I mean to say, she doesn’t know I’m giving it her, and all that!”

“Besides,” said Reggie, achieving a certain animation now that the tedious business interview was concluded, “going to the ball-game this afternoon—­might get pocket picked—­yes, better have it sent.”

“Where shall I send it, sir?”

“Eh?  Oh, shoot it along to Mrs. Archibald Moffam, at the Cosmopolis.  Not to-day, you know.  Buzz it in first thing to-morrow.”

Having completed the satisfactory deal, the jeweller threw off the business manner and became chatty.

“So you are going to the ball-game?  It should be an interesting contest.”

Reggie van Tuyl, now—­by his own standards—­completely awake, took exception to this remark.

“Not a bit of it!” he said, decidedly.  “No contest!  Can’t call it a contest!  Walkover for the Pirates!”

Archie was stung to the quick.  There is that about baseball which arouses enthusiasm and the partisan spirit in the unlikeliest bosoms.  It is almost impossible for a man to live in America and not become gripped by the game; and Archie had long been one of its warmest adherents.  He was a whole-hearted supporter of the Giants, and his only grievance against Reggie, in other respects an estimable young man, was that the latter, whose money had been inherited from steel-mills in that city, had an absurd regard for the Pirates of Pittsburg.

“What absolute bally rot!” he exclaimed.  “Look what the Giants did to them yesterday!”

“Yesterday isn’t to-day,” said Reggie.

“No, it’ll be a jolly sight worse,” said Archie.  “Looney Biddle’ll be pitching for the Giants to-day.”

“That’s just what I mean.  The Pirates have got him rattled.  Look what happened last time.”