Memory awoke. I felt ashamed that I could ever have forgotten a girl so bounding and spectacular. “Of course! The blister you brought with you that night George Tupper gave us dinner at the Regent Grill. By the way, has George ever forgiven you for that?” “There is still a little coldness,” admitted Ukridge, ruefully. “I’m bound to say old Tuppy seems to be letting the thing rankle a bit. The fact of the matter is, old horse, Tuppy has his limitations. He isn’t a real friend like you. Delightful fellow, but lacks vision. Can’t understand that there are certain occasions when it is simply imperative that a man’s pals rally round him. Now you——” “Well, I’ll tell you one thing. I am hoping that what I went through this afternoon really was for some good cause. I should be sorry, now that I am in a cooler frame of mind, to have to strangle you where you lie. Would you mind telling me exactly what was the idea behind all this?” “It’s like this, laddie. Good old Billson blew in to see me the other day.” “I met him down in the East End and he asked for your address.” “Yes, he told me.” “What’s going on? Are you still managing him?” “Yes. That’s what he wanted to see me about. Apparently the contract has another year to run and he can’t fix up anything without my O.K. And he’s just had an offer to fight a bloke called Alf Todd at the Universal.” “That’s a step up from Wonderland,” I said, for I had a solid respect for this Mecca of the boxing world. “How much is he getting this time?” “Two hundred quid.” “Two hundred quid! But that’s a lot for practically an unknown man.” “Unknown man?” said Ukridge, hurt. “What do you mean, unknown man? If you ask my opinion, I should say the whole pugilistic world is seething with excitement about old Billson. Literally seething. Didn’t he slosh the middleweight champion?” “Yes, in a rough-and-tumble in a back alley. And nobody saw him do it.” “Well, these things get about.” “But two hundred pounds!” “A fleabite, laddie, a fleabite. You can take it from me that we shall be asking a lot more than a measly couple of hundred for our services pretty soon. Thousands, thousands! Still, I’m not saying it won’t be something to be going on with. Well, as I say, old Billson came to me and said he had had this offer, and how about it? And when I realised that I was in halves, I jolly soon gave him my blessing and told him to go as far as he liked. So you can imagine how I felt when Flossie put her foot down like this.” “Like what? About ten minutes ago when you started talking, you seemed to be on the point of explaining about Flossie. How does she come to be mixed up with the thing? What did she do?” “Only wanted to stop the whole business, laddie, that was all. Just put the kybosh on the entire works. Said he mustn’t fight!” “Mustn’t fight?”