Wu smiled openly, and there was a slight drawl in his voice answering, “Could I aspire to be the one, or presume to be the other? Can the rush-light claim friendship with the sun, or the mountain-stream declare war against the ocean?”
“Oh, yes, yes! you’re very plausible!” Gregory threw himself back in his chair wearily, and he was weary.
“‘Plausible’ is not a very pleasant word, Mr. Gregory,” Wu said quietly, but in a tone of curt resentment.
“You ask me to speak plainly.”
“But not to speak rudely. I do not employ rudeness, nor do I accept it. And now may I ask how this hypothetical hostility of mine has been manifested?”
“In a number of ways,” Gregory returned, a little sneeringly.
“Will you name one?” Wu was entirely bland again.
“You must be aware,” the other told him, “that my firm has recently sustained a somewhat extraordinary series of setbacks.”
“I regret to hear that you have been somewhat unfortunate”—Wu said it sympathetically.
“I am determined that these annoyances shall cease”—Robert Gregory said it doggedly.