To her urgent whisper to send the man away he paid no heed.

Some spirit of perversity--or was it the hand of Fate upon him ?--made him bestow his supercilious attention upon the cringing visitor.
"Speak away, you son of a centipede!" he made kindly rejoinder.

"I am all ears--the _mem-sahib_ also." The man waved a skinny, protesting arm.

"Only his most gracious excellency!" he insisted, seeming to utter the words through parched lips.

"Will not his excellency deign to give his unworthy servant one precious moment that he may speak in the august one's ear alone ?" "This is highly mysterious," commented Dacre.