We were alone; he glared at me with an air of stubborn resolution.

I became aware I was being held up, so to speak, as if in a wood.

The verandah was empty by then, the noise and movement in court had ceased: a great silence fell upon the building, in which, somewhere far within, an oriental voice began to whine abjectly.

The dog, in the very act of trying to sneak in at the door, sat down hurriedly to hunt for fleas.
'"Did you speak to me ?" asked Jim very low, and bending forward, not so much towards me but at me, if you know what I mean.

I said "No" at once.
Something in the sound of that quiet tone of his warned me to be on my defence.