What did you say just now?
Friends?
who are your friends ?" He rubbed his hand savagely over his forehead--it was a way he had of clearing his mind.

"I know," he went on.

"I saw your friends just now.

Who's the young lady ?" His most intimate companions had never heard him laugh: they had sometimes seen his thin-lipped mouth widen drearily into a smile.

It widened now.