“Nobody will dare to intrude. You needn't even see me.”
“This is almost decisive, only—”
“I know my place.”
“Only, I might not have the influence,” she finished.
“That I can not believe,” he said, roughly. “The long and the short of it is you don't trust me because you think that only people of your own condition speak the truth always.”
“Evidently,” she murmured.
“You say to yourself—here's a fellow deep in with pirates, thieves, niggers—”
“To be sure—”
“A man I never saw the like before,” went on Lingard, headlong, “a—ruffian.”
He checked himself, full of confusion. After a time he heard her saying, calmly: