He was fascinated, not so much by the incident described or by the earnestness of the man who described it,--for with both he was familiar,--but by the strangeness of the conditions under which it was told--this story of Africa, before these serried rows of white eager faces, in this stifling hall, where the gaslight struggled with the waning day.

From the raised platform on which he sat he could see through the open windows away across green fields to where the sun was setting in a clear sky behind quiet Yorkshire wolds.

The combination of circumstances made the episode bizarre to him; he was, in fact, paying an unconscious tribute to the orator's vividness.
Clarice paid the same tribute, but she phrased it differently, and the difference was significant.

She said, 'Isn't it strange that he should _be here_--in a frock-coat?
I half thought the room would dissolve and we should find ourselves at Boruwimi.' Fielding started.

Coming from her lips the name sounded strange; yet she spoke it without the least hesitation.