to have been ready to do without all this arguing."

"To oblige you," said the Major, "and because I want you to have a
pleasant holiday now you're here, I will ask Miss King out with us
once. But I won't ask Simpkins. The man is a horrid bounder, who
makes himself objectionable to everybody, and I won't ask him."

"Nobody wants you to ask him. I'll ask him."

"That will be just the same thing. Once for all, J. J., I won't have
that man on board my boat."

"I don't think," said Meldon, "that you are behaving with quite your
usual fairness, Major. You don't like Simpkins. I am not going into
the reasons for your dislike. They may be sound, or they may be the
reverse. I simply state the fact that you don't get on with the man.
Very well. I don't get on with Miss King. I told you the other day
that I offended her, and she was what I should call extremely rude to
me afterwards. But do I bring that up as a reason why you should not
take her for a sail in the _Spindrift_? Certainly not. It won't, as a
matter of fact, be particularly pleasant for me having to sit in the
same boat all day with a young woman who won't speak to me; but I'm
prepared to sacrifice myself and do it. And you ought to be ready to
do the same thing in the case of Simpkins."

"I'm not," said the Major. "I can't and won't have Simpkins."

"My dear Major, don't you see that your quarrel with Simpkins is one of
the strongest points in the whole plan? He won't speak to you when he
sees that you dislike him. Miss King won't speak to me. What will the
consequence be? Why, of course, they'll be thrown together. They must
talk to each other, and that's exactly what we want them to do. If
Simpkins was a friend of yours, and if Miss King was particularly fond
of me, there'd be no use our taking them out at all. They wouldn't be
obliged to talk to each other."

"If you've finished your dinner, J. J., we may as well go into the next
room and smoke. I don't see that there's any use going on with this
conversation."

"There isn't; not the least. But you'll do me the justice, Major, to
admit that it wasn't I who insisted on it. I could perfectly well have
arranged the matter in two sentences, but you would argue with me about
every single thing I said."

Major Kent rose and opened the door for his friend. They went together
into the study and sat down. The Major, after a few preliminary
excuses, took the two copies of _The Times_,