I treated him without ceremony and only waved my hand towards a chair.

Even before he sat down he gasped out: "We've heard--midday post." Gasped out! The grave, immovable Fyne of the Civil Service, gasped! This was enough, you'll admit, to cause me to put my feet to the ground swiftly.

That fellow was always making me do things in subtle discord with my meditative temperament.

No wonder that I had but a qualified liking for him.

I said with just a suspicion of jeering tone: "Of course.