“It’s not a beginning at all,” I reminded him. “It’s more like an ending.”
That kept him silent for quite a long while.
“I suppose you despise me,” he finally remarked.
“It’s scarcely so active an emotion,” I tried to punish him by retorting.
“But I at least insist on explaining what took me to the Coast,” he contended.
“That is scarcely necessary,” I told him.
“Then you know?” he asked.
“I imagine the whole country-side does,” I observed.
He made a movement of mixed anger and protest.
“I went to Vancouver because the government had agreed to take over my Vancouver Island water-front for their new shipbuilding yards. If you’ve forgotten just what that means, I’d like to remind you that there’s——”