“Yet you cannot deny,” pursued Corin, “that there is a pleasing strength and virility about him. I had allowed myself to imagine him as a small hustling man, a cross between the brisk commercial traveller and the hard-headed mechanic, with perhaps a touch of the oily waiter thrown in. And now,” went on Corin musingly, “I perceive that he is a big man——”
“Your eyesight would be strangely deficient if you didn’t perceive it,” broke in John.
“A silent man——”
“He hadn’t a chance of getting a word in edgeways when you appeared upon the scene,” interpolated John.
“A thoughtful man——”
“It is to be hoped he was able to assimilate a few of the thoughts you thrust down his throat,” quoth John grimly.
“Hang the stupid little complications of life,” he was thinking. There was a tiny note of trouble in his eyes.
“If you mean that I thrust my ideas upon him unwanted,” said Corin with dignity, “allow me to remark that you are mistaken. I observed interest, intelligent interest, in his face.”
“And you pretend to being short-sighted,” interposed John.
“The idea,” continued Corin, “of his having worked out his debt of karma for sins committed in former lives, and being, therefore, now able to enter upon his birthright, appealed to him. It distinctly appealed to him. He said, ‘I guess that’s a new handle to take hold of,’ more than once.”