'The lease has expired.'
'Not quite. You are misinformed.'
'At Easter.'
'Ah! Question of renewing.'
'You were fond of the place.'
'I was fond of the place? Thank Blazes, I'm not what I was!' He paced about. 'There's not a corner of the place that doesn't screw an eye at me, because I had a dream there. La gloire!'
The rest he muttered. 'These English!' was heard. Aminta said: 'Am I never to see Steignton?'
Lord Ormont invoked the Powers. He could not really give answer to this female talk of the eternities.
'Beaten I can never be,' he said, with instinctive indulgence to the greater creature. 'But down there at Steignton, I should be haunted by a young donkey swearing himself the fellow I grew up out of. No doubt of that. I don't like him the better for it. Steignton grimaces at a cavalry officer fool enough at his own risks and penalties to help save India for the English. Maunderers! You can't tell—they don't know themselves—what they mean. Except that they 're ready to take anything you hand 'em, and then pipe to your swinging. I served them well—and at my age, in full activity, they condemn me to sit and gape!'
He stopped his pacing and gazed on the glass of the window.