"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

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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?"




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