[CHAPTER XI.]
A SUCCESSFUL INTERVIEW.
“You must not suppose,” said O’Neill, after I had expressed my commiseration, “that I was always unsuccessful in my conversations and business transactions. On the contrary I have sometimes surprised myself and everybody else by the (shall I say?) aptness and readiness of my utterance—not to speak of its delicacy and point.
You smile? But listen.
This was certainly the case one day when I had an interview with an elegant young man who came to me from the Bevolkings Register Bureau.
That is the place where the authorities give themselves so much needless trouble about your address and initials, and where I had broken the law of the land by mixing up the tinsmith with the lightning-conductor.
KEEP THE CONVERSATION TO YOURSELF.
Well a representative of this Departement of State called upon me two days running, when I was out. The last time he came he left word that he would return next morning at 10.30 sharp; and would I please give him an interview?
I thought it wise to do so.
That unhappy blunder of mine might get me into trouble. Perhaps the officials of the Bevolkings office were going to prosecute me for conspiring to deceive the government. At all events I would be at home at 10.30; and, more than that, I would be ready for my visitor when he came.
I rose about six, and prepared for the proposed conversation as a barrister prepares his brief.