“Who are you?”
The stout man did not show any surprise at this burst of anger, but quietly answered:
“A friend of your father’s; did you not know it?”
“That is no answer, monsieur; I have been surprised into being influenced by a stranger, and now—”
“Do you want my biography, what I have been, what I am, and what I may be? What difference does it make to you? I told you that I would save you; the main point is that I am saving you.”
“Still I have the right to ask by what means you are saving me.”
“What good will it do you to know what my plans are?”
“In order to decide whether I will accept or reject them?”
“But suppose I guarantee success?”
“That is not sufficient, monsieur. I do not choose to be any longer deprived of my own free will, to be exposed without warning to trials like those I have undergone to-day. A man of my age must know what he is doing.”