He had with him a portmanteau covered with a linen case, his boots were a bright shade of yellow, his tie was of white satin with a design of lavender flowers.

A pair of black kid gloves lay by his side.

He welcomed Norgate with the bland, broad smile of a fellow-passenger whose one desire it is to make a lifelong friend of his temporary companion.
"We have the compartment to ourselves, is it not so?
You are English ?" Some queer chance founded upon his ill-humour, his disgust of Germany and all things in it, induced Norgate to tell a deliberate falsehood.
"Sorry," he replied in English.

"I don't speak German." The man's satisfaction was complete.
"But I--I speak the most wonderful English.

It pleases me always to speak English.