I shook my head in indifference.
“Well,” he said, “you must know some time, when you might be more curious; and short explanations suit me best. We are immured, child, in a wall; and so long as we don’t betray ourselves, nothing can betray us—not even into an acknowledgment of what one of us may owe to the other.”
“I am grateful to you,” I said coldly, and said no more. The truth is, I was hardly listening to him, so intense had grown my desire that he would coax me at last into eating something.
He laughed, and, pushing his plate away, settled his fists on his hips, and began, like a satisfied man, to troll a soft little song. I could stand it no longer.
“Give me a little piece,” I said, “and I will show you how collops should be eaten.”
“You mean,” he answered at once, “that you will show me how to behave. But I have done with all that hypocrisy.”
He rose with the words, having finished, and, to my anger and astonishment, cleared the board, piecemeal and deliberately, and, piling all on the tray, gave the signal for its withdrawal. It disappeared instantly. Then he returned to his stool, and, pulling out pipe and tobacco, began to smoke placidly. Fury overcame me.
“Have you not forgotten to ask my permission?” I cried.
“Punctilio in a sewer!” he answered, puffing; “that is hardly to be expected.”
I rose at once.