"Oh, he is game, sir; never you doubt it, sir," said the amiable William.
"I have some silver in change," I suggested with some bitterness.
"Far be it that I should touch silver," he said generously, did this rogue. "Besides, you will need something to pay for this little supper and the fare back to New York." My bills disappeared into his pocket. "You will observe that I trust you implicitly. I haven't even counted the money."
William sniggered.
"And is there anything further?" I inquired. The comedy was beginning to weary me, it was so one-sided.
"I am in no particular hurry," the rogue answered, his sardonic smile returning. "It is so long since I have chatted with people of my kind."
I scowled.
"Pardon me, I meant from a social point of view only. I admit we would not be equals in the eye of the Presbyter."
And then followed a scene that reminds me to this day of some broken, fantastic dream, a fragment from some bewildering nightmare.