"Pull that out and sit you down.

What we shall have to say to each other'll not be said in five minutes.

Let's confer in the proper and comfortable fashion." I did what he asked, and he took another chair himself and sat down opposite me, propping his elbow on the table and leaning across it, so that, the table being but narrow, his sharp eyes and questioning lips were closer to mine than I cared for.

And while he leaned forward in his chair I sat back in mine, keeping as far from him as I could, and just staring at him--perhaps as if I had been some trapped animal that couldn't get itself away from the eyes of another that meant presently to kill it.

Once again I asked him what he wanted.
"You didn't answer my question," he said.