If you know the English at all, you know it is not their habit to address strangers, even under the most pressing circumstances.

Yet here was one of that haughty race actually interfering in my selection of a stick.

I ended by buying the one he preferred, and he strolled along with me in the direction of my hotel, chatting meantime in a fashion far from British.
We stopped at the Kursaal, where we listened to the music, had a drink and threw away a few francs on the little horses.

He came with me to the veranda of my hotel.

I was surprised, when he took his leave, to find that he regarded me in the light of an old friend.