“Let me introduce you two,” said the hostess. “Mrs Braine is an ardent botanist, Mr Murray, and I’m sure that you will enjoy a chat together. She knows all our flowering plants here by heart.”
“I am very pleased to meet Mr Murray,” said the newcomer in a sweet sad voice. “I hope he will let me be his guide to some of the nooks on the river-bank, where the jungle can be penetrated.”
“I should only be too glad, my dear madam,” said Murray; “and I can find no words to express my thanks—our thanks, I should say—for your cordial reception here of a perfect stranger; but my nephew and I have only put in to buy a bag of rice and some fruit to replenish our stores, and we are going on directly.”
Murray ceased speaking, and looked sharply from one to the other, for he had seen Mr Braine raise his eyebrows and glance at the doctor and the shrewd keen-looking man. The doctor laughed, and took up the cigar box.
“Have a smoke, Braine?” he said.
“Thanks,” was the reply; and the newcomer took a cheroot in the midst of a rather constrained silence.
“I hope I have not said anything wrong,” continued Murray, who felt piqued at the manners of those about him, for the ladies began talking together in a subdued tone.
“Oh dear me, no!” said Mr Braine hastily. “You are shooting and collecting, I think?”
“We have not begun yet,” replied Murray, quickly; “but that is why we have come.”
There was another pause.