I laughed again. I did not shrink from exasperating him to the uttermost. He would be no more dangerous; he might be less discreet.
‘Pardon me,’ said I, ‘but I don’t perceive how we need your permission, glad as we should, of course, be of your felicitations.’
‘I have some power in Neopalia,’ he reminded me, with a threatening gleam in his eye.
‘No doubt, but the power has to be carefully exercised when British subjects are in question—men, if I may add so much, of some position. I can’t be considered an islander of Neopalia for all purposes, my dear Pasha.’
He seemed not to hear or not to heed what I said; but he both heard and heeded, or I mistook my man.
‘I don’t give up what I have resolved upon,’ said he.
‘You describe my own temper to a nicety,’ said I. ‘Now I have resolved to marry Phroso.’
‘No,’ said Mouraki. I greeted the word with a scornful shrug.
‘You understand?’ he continued. ‘It shall not be.’