“Nothing that I noticed,” Austin told him, “but then his back was to me so I am not competent to judge.”
“When you speak to any one don’t you go up and look ’em in the face like a man same as I’m talking and looking at you?”
Austin permitted himself to smile.
“Do you suggest I should look at Mr. Warren as you are looking at me? Pardon me, sir, but I should lose my place if I did.”
McWalsh flushed a darker red.
“Why didn’t you look at him in your own way then?”
“It’s very clear,” Austin answered with dignity, “that you know very little of the ways of an establishment like ours. I stood at the door as I usually do, asked a question I have done hundreds of times and received the same answer I do as a rule. If I’d known I was to have to answer all these questions I might have recollected more about it.”
“What was Mr. Warren doing?”
“Reading a paper and smoking.”
“He was alone?”