The minute before, there had been no idea in me of speaking to him.

I did not know how to speak, or in what way it would be safest to begin; and yet, the moment I came face to face with him, something out of myself seemed to stop me, and to make me speak without considering beforehand, without thinking of consequences, without knowing, I may almost say, what words I was uttering till the instant when they rose to my lips.
"When your old neck-tie was torn, did you know that one end of it went to the rag-shop, and the other fell into my hands ?" I said these bold words to him suddenly, and, as it seemed, without my own will taking any part in them.
He started, stared, changed color.

He was too much amazed by my sudden speaking to find an answer for me.

When he did open his lips, it was to say rather to himself than me: "You're not the girl." "No," I said, with a strange choking at my heart, "I'm her friend." By this time he had recovered his surprise, and he seemed to be aware that he had let out more than he ought.
"You may be anybody's friend you like," he said, brutally, "so long as you don't come jabbering nonsense here.

I don't know you, and I don't understand your jokes." He turned quickly away from me when he had said the last words.