"It must be difficult. A man whom you saw so recently, and I suppose apparently quite well."
"Quite. Absolutely."
Julian sat silent again and allowed the waiter to take away his plate with the untouched cutlet.
"I didn't like the man," he began at last. "But still I'm sorry, damned sorry, about this. I wanted to see him again. He was an awfully interesting fellow, Val; and, as I told you, might, I believe, in time have gained a sort of influence over me,—not like yours, of course, but he certainly had a power, a strength, about him, even a kind of fascination. He was not like other people. Ah—" and he exclaimed impatiently, "I wish you had met him."
"Why?"
"I scarcely know. But I should like you to have had the experience. And then, you are so intuitive about people, you might have read him. I could not. And he was a fellow worth reading, that I'm certain of. No, I won't have any mutton. I seem to have lost my appetite over this."
Valentine calmly continued his dinner, while Julian talked on about Marr rather excitedly. When they were having coffee Valentine said:
"What shall we do to-night? It is only a quarter past nine. Shall we go anywhere?"
"Oh no, I think not—wait—yes, we will."
Julian drank his coffee off at a gulp, in a way that would have made him the despair of an epicure.