"What good fortune has brought you here so early this morning?" he
continued, taking a few puffs at his cigar.
"Why, I should have thought you expected to see me," I replied, looking
him straight in the face.
He returned my look with a smile.
"I expected you, without expecting you, as they say."
By the peculiar tone in which he uttered these words, I could see that
he was determined to make me take the initiative in the matter upon
which I had come.
"Very well!" I said, wishing to show him that I guessed his mind. "I
will explain myself."
"I am all attention, my dear fellow," he answered.
"I have come to speak to you," I continued drily, "about Mademoiselle
Kondjé-Gul Murrah, and about what passed yesterday between her and you."
"Ah, yes! I understand: you are referring to the somewhat severe lecture
which I drew upon myself, and to the confidential communication she made
me."
"Precisely so," I added; "you could not sum up the two points better
than you have done: a lecture, and a confidence. Now as one outcome of
the second point is that I am responsible for all Mademoiselle Murrah's
acts, I have come to place myself at your command respecting the lecture
she thought fit to give you."
"What nonsense, my dear fellow!" he exclaimed, puffing a cloud of smoke
into the air. "After all I only had what I deserved, for I can only
blame my own presumption. Besides the very anger of such a charming
young lady is a favour to the man who incurs it, so that my only regret
is that I offended her. I should therefore really laugh at myself to
think that I could hold you responsible for this little incident: nay, I
will go so far as to say that, strictly speaking, I should owe you an
apology for what you might be justified in complaining of as an act of
disloyalty between friends, but for the fact that I can plead as my
excuse the complete ignorance in which you left me of certain mysterious
relations. You must know very well that a simple word from you, my
relative, my friend, would have made me stop short on the brink of the
precipice."
I appreciated the reproachful irony concealed in this last sentence; but
I had gone too far to trouble myself about remorses of conscience
regarding him.
"So then," I replied, "you have nothing to say, no satisfaction to
demand of me in respect to this lecture?"