'Then I'm afraid it will have to be cash, sir.'
'Cash?' said Frensic. 'In that case...'
'We'll go to the bank,' said Miss Bogden firmly. They went to the bank in the High Street. Miss Bogden seated herself while Frensic conferred at the counter.
'Five hundred pounds?' said the teller. 'We'll have to have proof of identity and telephone your own branch.'
Frensic glanced at Miss Bogden and lowered his voice. 'Frensic,' he said nervously, 'Frederick Frensic, Glass Walk, Hampstead but my business account is with the branch in Covent Garden.'
'We'll call you when we have confirmation,' said the teller.
Frensic blanched. 'I'd be grateful if you didn't...' he began.
Didn't what?'
'Never mind,' said Frensic and went back to Miss Bogden. He had to get her out of the bank before that blasted teller started hollering for Mr Frensic.
'This is going to take some time, darling. Why don't you toddle back to...'
'But I've taken the day off and I thought...'
'Taken the day off?' said Frensic. If this sort of stress went on much longer it would take years off. 'But...'
'But what?' said Miss Bogden.
'But I'm supposed to be meeting an author for lunch. Professor Dubrowitz. From Warsaw. He's only over for the day and...' He hustled her out of the bank promising to come to the office just as soon as he could. Then with a sigh of relief he went back and collected five hundred pounds.
'Now for the nearest telephone,' he said to himself as he pocketed the money and descended the steps. Cynthia Bogden was still there.
'But...' Frensic began and gave up. With Miss Bogden there were no buts.
'I thought we'd just go and get the ring first,' she said taking his arm, 'then you can go and have lunch with your boring old professor.'
They went back to the jewellers and Frensic paid ?500. Only then did Miss Bogden allow him to escape.
'Call me as soon as you've finished,' she said pecking his cheek. Frensic promised to and hurried off to the main post office. In a foul temper he dialled 23507.
'The Bombay Duck Restaurant,' said an Indian who was unlikely to have written Pause. Frensic slammed the phone down and tried another combination of the digits in the ring. This time he got MacLoughlin's Fish Emporium. Then he ran out of change. He went across to the main counter and handed over a five-pound note for a 6-1/2p stamp and returned with a pocketful of coins. The phone booth was occupied. Frensic stood beside it looking belligerent while an apparently sub-normal youth plighted his acned troth to a girl who giggled audibly. Frensic spent the time trying to remember the exact number and by the time the youth had finished he had got it. Frensic went in and dialled 20357. There was a long pause and the sound of the ringing tone before anyone answered. Frensic plunged a coin into the machine.
'Yes,' said a thin querulous voice, 'who is it?'
Frensic hesitated a moment and then coarsened his voice. 'This is the General Post Office, telephone faults department,' he said. 'We are trying to trace a crossed connection in a junction box. If you would just give me your name and address.'
'A fault?' said the voice. 'We haven't had any faults.'
'You soon will have. There's a burst water main and we need your name and address.'
'But I thought you said you had a crossed connection?' said the voice peevishly. 'Now you say there's a water main...'
'Madam,' said Frensic officiously, 'the burst water main is affecting the junction box and we need your help to locate it. Now if you will be so good as give me your name and address...'
