I was getting a little angry, too, at the absurdity of this encounter.

It strikes me now I have never in my life been so near a beating--I mean it literally; a beating with fists.

I suppose I had some hazy prescience of that eventuality being in the air.

Not that he was actively threatening me.

On the contrary, he was strangely passive--don't you know?
but he was lowering, and, though not exceptionally big, he looked generally fit to demolish a wall.