But it was not about the prospect of war that Harry Feversham had news to speak.
"I only reached London this morning from Dublin," he said with a shade of embarrassment.

"I have been some weeks in Dublin." Durrance lifted his eyes from the tablecloth and looked quietly at his friend.
"Yes ?" he asked steadily.
"I have come back engaged to be married." Durrance lifted his glass to his lips.
"Well, here's luck to you, Harry," he said, and that was all.

The wish, indeed, was almost curtly expressed, but there was nothing wanting in it to Feversham's ears.

The friendship between these two men was not one in which affectionate phrases had any part.

There was, in truth, no need of such.