Had I been in any other place but the club I should have ignored him.
I possessed the liveliest hatred for the man.
"If you will be brief."
"As brief as possible," dropping into the nearest chair. "It has
become necessary to ask you a few questions. The matter concerns me."
"Whatever concerns you is nothing to me," I replied coldly.
He smiled. "Are you quite sure?"
I had turned the sword on myself, so it seemed. But I said: "I
answered some of your questions once; I believe I was explicit."
"As to that I can say you were; startlingly explicit. It is a delicate
matter to profess one's regard for a woman before total strangers. It
is not impossible that she would have done the same thing in your
place. Her regard for you--"
I interrupted him with a menacing gesture. "I am extremely irritable,"
I said. "I should regret to lose control of myself in a place like
this."
"To be sure!" he said. "This is England, where they knock one another
down."
"We do not murder on this side of the channel," I retorted.
"That is unkind. Your friend was a very good shot," with a significant
glance at his useless arm.
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