“Are you going to town?” he asked Felix, as though seeing him then was the most natural thing in the world.
The young man nodded.
“Yes, it’s getting pretty dreary down here, isn’t it? You’re off back, I see.”
Mr. Sabin assented.
“Yes,” he said, “I’ve had about enough of it. Besides, I’m overdue at Pau, and I’m anxious to get there. Are you coming in here?”
Felix hesitated. At first the suggestion had astonished him; almost immediately it became a temptation. It would be distinctly piquant to travel with this man. On the other hand it was distinctly unwise; it was running an altogether unnecessary risk. Mr. Sabin read his thoughts with the utmost ease.
“I should rather like to have a little chat with you,” he said quietly; “you are not afraid, are you? I am quite unarmed, and as you see Nature has not made me for a fighting man.”
Felix hesitated no longer. He motioned to the porter who was carrying his dressing-case and golf clubs, and had them conveyed into Mr. Sabin’s carriage. He himself took the opposite seat.
“I had no idea,” Mr. Sabin remarked, “that you were in the neighbourhood.”