"We'll not explain here," I said, still in a good deal of a huff; and the small crowd melted away—disappointed, I dare say, that it wasn't a fight.
"Now," I said, when we were outside in the crowded street, "you might let me know what all this is about, and what it is that for the love of God I'm not to do again."
He was half apologetic, but at the same time half blustering, as if I had committed some sort of an outrage.
"A senseless thing like that!" he mumbled to himself. "But there: you didn't know…. You don't know, do you?… I tell you, d'you hear, you're not to run at all when I'm about! You're a nice fellow and all that, and get your quantities somewhere near right, if you do go a long way round to do it—but I'll not answer for myself if you run, d'you hear?… Putting your hand on a man's shoulder like that, just when …"
"Certainly I might have spoken," I agreed, a little stiffly.
"Of course, you ought to have spoken! Just you see you don't do it again.
It's monstrous!"
I put a curt question.
"Are you sure you're quite right in your head, Rooum?"
"Ah," he cried, "don't you think I just fancy it, my lad! Nothing so easy! I thought you guessed that other time, on the new road … it's as plain as a pikestaff… no, no, no! I shall be telling you something about molecules one of these days!"
We walked for a time in silence.