‘Yes, sir.’
‘Didn’t I tell you to say that I didn’t wish to see him?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Then why didn’t you do as I told you?’
‘I did, sir.’
‘Then how comes he here?’
‘Really, sir,’—Edwards put his hand up to his head as if he was half asleep—‘I don’t quite know.’
‘What do you mean by you don’t know? Why didn’t you stop him?’
‘I think, sir, that I must have had a touch of sudden faintness, because I tried to put out my hand to stop him, and—I couldn’t.’
‘You’re an idiot.—Go!’ And he went. I turned to the stranger. ‘Pray, sir, are you a magician?’