In the irritation of the moment, I now first resolved to adopt his suggestion seriously.

The next slip of paper that I handed to him administered the smartest rebuff that my dull brains could discover on the spur of the moment: "The Cur is requested to keep his advice till he is asked for it." For the first time, something like a smile showed itself faintly on his lips--and represented the only effect which my severity had produced.

He still followed his own train of thought, as resolutely and as impertinently as ever.
"I haven't seen you talking to Cristel before to-night.

Have you been meeting her in secret ?" In justice to the girl, I felt that I ought to set him right, so far.
Taking up the pencil again, I told this strange man that I had just returned to England, after an absence of many years in foreign countries--that I had known Cristel when we were both children--and that I had met her purely by accident, when he had detected us talking outside the cottage.

Seeing me pause, after advancing to that point in the writing of my reply, he held out his hand impatiently for the paper.