"Sit down, Mr.Hackh," he ordered genially, "and give us news of the other world! I mean," he laughed, "west of Suez.
Smoking's allowed--here, try that!" He commanded them, as it were, to take their ease,--the women among cushions on a rattan couch, the men stretched in long chairs.

He put questions, indolent, friendly questions, opening vistas of reply and recollection; so that Rudolph, answering, felt the first return of homely comfort.

A feeble return, however, and brief: in the pauses of talk, misgiving swarmed in his mind, like the leaping vermin of last night.

The world into which he had been thrown still appeared disorderly, incomprehensible, and dangerous.

The plague--it still recurred in his thoughts like a sombre motive; these friendly people were still strangers; and for a moment now and then their talk, their smiles, the click of billiards, the cool, commonplace behavior, seemed a foolhardy unconcern, as of men smoking in a powder magazine.
"Clearing a bit, outside," called Nesbit.