His face flickered with bored irritation. He shrugged his shoulders slightly.

‘I wanted to,’ he said, coolly.

‘But why? Why should you?’

‘Am I called on to find reasons?’ he asked.

There was a silence, whilst she examined the rings that had been screwed up in the paper.

‘I think they are BEAUTIFUL,’ she said, ‘especially this. This is wonderful-’

It was a round opal, red and fiery, set in a circle of tiny rubies.

‘You like that best?’ he said.

‘I think I do.’

‘I like the sapphire,’