With a start of affected nervousness I exclaimed quickly, “Oh, I’m sure—I trust——” as if beginning an apology, and then stopped and lowered my eyes.
“Then be good enough to be more guarded in what you say and how you say it.”
I hesitated as if much impressed and rather cowed by this and at a loss what to say. “These concessions, of course....” I stammered when he broke in.
“You have my answer in regard to them. It is final. And now I must ask you to leave me.”
I put in a little comedy stroke, by tossing up my hands, glancing half-appealingly at him, and giving a little sigh of regret.
“You can do no good by remaining, Mr. Donnington. You asked me just now whether I had offered you my hand in any spirit of friendliness. I will tell you now, I did not. I have no wish for your friendship or your acquaintance.”
“But you expressed a desire that we should meet again and I—I made quite sure——” I broke off again and let the sentence falter out in an indistinct murmur.
“You know my decision now at any rate. You understand our language quite well enough for my meaning to be perfectly plain.”
I was rather surprised at his attitude. He appeared to have quite reassured himself that we had not met before and that he had nothing to fear from me. And yet he had set that trap to get me into trouble. I could only conclude therefore that my present apparent fear of him led him to think he could safely intimidate me. So I dug the spur in.
“You said you would welcome a chance of exchanging our mutual experiences in South Africa.”