"Your niece!" I exclaimed, and my astonishment was quite unfeigned.
"Precisely."
That peremptory manner which I had previously resented in him evinced itself now; and even had I lacked reasons other than personal for foiling him I should certainly have returned a reply far from pacific.
"I was not aware," he continued, his voice high-pitched and harsh, "that you were acquainted. Inform me."
All the time he was peering about the room suspiciously, and:
"I inform you that we are not!" I said. "But if we were, I cannot conceive that our acquaintance would concern you in any way."
"You are rude, sir!" he cried, and bent towards me so that I could see the fierce hawk face set in a vicious scowl.
"I should be sorry to think so," I said indifferently; for the Eurasian's behavior transcended the merely annoying and was that of a lunatic. "I would not willingly provoke a sick man, and the tone and manner of your address forcibly suggest to me that your temperature is not normal."
A moment he stood bending towards me, his pose that of one about to spring, then:
"Ah," he exclaimed, "yes, you are right, Mr. Addison. I live much alone and I fear my manner grows brusk. Overlook it. She has gone, then?"