"Whatever concerns you is nothing to me," I replied coldly.
He smiled. "Are you quite sure?"
I had turned the sword on myself, so it seemed. But I said: "I answered some of your questions once; I believe I was explicit."
"As to that I can say you were; startlingly explicit. It is a delicate matter to profess one's regard for a woman before total strangers. It is not impossible that she would have done the same thing in your place. Her regard for you—"
I interrupted him with a menacing gesture. "I am extremely irritable," I said. "I should regret to lose control of myself in a place like this."
"To be sure!" he said. "This is England, where they knock one another down."
"We do not murder on this side of the channel," I retorted.
"That is unkind. Your friend was a very good shot," with a significant glance at his useless arm. "But for my arm, and his nerves, which were not of the best order, I had not lived to speak to you to-night."
"So much the worse for the world," said I. "Your questions?"
"Ah! Who was that remarkably beautiful woman under your distinguished care Thursday evening?"